Alex, Adventurer at age 8
by Rocknkitten
Summary: This may say it has only two chapters, but the chapters are within the story. See chapt two for rest of it. It's about a boy who goes on a mission to save his parents. It is by far the coolest adventure!
1. PART ONE A mission has begun

ALEX, ADVENTURER AT AGE 8.

Hi. Do you know me? You might not. You'll find out who I am a little later. The setting takes place at the dinner table with my mom and dad and sister. She is 15 or something. I never really knew. You can't tell by her behavior. She acts like a 17 year old...I believe, and she's always talking on the phone. When my parents sat down, I knew something was up. And as they began to eat, I got a clue of something else. They are going to ground me for some reason, except I can't think of it now. Or that's what I was thinking there. "Son," began dad. "We are going on a trip in another country...And I'm sorry for blurting it out at you, but we can only bring passengers 13 or up! I know it's a dumb rule. But you are only 7, 8 tomorrow!...Your mom and I have made up our minds. We are sending you to your cousin Megan's house for one whole week until we come back, okay? You can celebrate your birthday party when we get back." dad's a fast talker and I couldn't say anything back at him. He was a vacuum and sucked out my words from my mouth. So I sat with my mouth drooped open at them. Megan is older than me and she's weird. She doesn't like me I think. She's 12. Once, I went into her room, and I took this neat squishy globe that was full of sparkles and goop, and I accidentally popped it by mistake! She blew up when she found out...And that is probably why she doesn't like me. She yelled, "Do you know how much that costs? $4.00! Wow, huh! YOU BROKE IT!" Now I was going to visit her at the age of 12.  
  
11:00 in the morning the next day, I stepped up onto Megan's house, biting my lower lip. It's a sign of nervous. The door opened and there stood a girl only a few inches taller than me. "Hi Alex! Come in!" she said nicely, helping me through the door. "Are you nice, or are you like, mean?" I asked her. Then she started laughing historically. "Megan, why are you laughing?" I asked. She kept laughing. "Of course I'm nice!" she laughed. Then she put her hand on me and pushed me into the other room. She bit her lower lip. "Alex, I am going to be having an old friend over. Her name is Rudy and she's a friend from kindergarten, but you can play with my little brother Aaron. He's six, okay, just try to be on your best behavior when Rudy comes," She said, then she walked away and yelled, "Aaron! Someone here wants to play with you!" I heard fast clanking on the stairs and I saw a boy slide into this room. "Where is he?" he scribbled around the room and squashed into a desk with a lot of clothes on it...But now they were on Aaron's head. "Aaron?" I asked. Aaron looked at me through a sleeve of a shirt. "Aaron are you okay?" I asked for the last time. I went to him and took the shirt off his head. "Hello Aaron! Hi! Do you want to play? Do you want to? Do you?" I was bouncing off the walls. He made the "Tsk Tsk Tsk," sound. "What a talker." He rolled his eyes and flew out of the clothes at me. "Do you want to play, shoot the Alex?" he grinded his teeth together. And his eyes blew up big. "NO! I AM NOT INTERESTED IN THAT GAME," I told him, but that's when he took out a rubber- band gun from his pocket!  
  
MEGAN  
  
Megan sat on her bed waiting for Rudy to come. As soon as she heard a knock on the door, she scurried to the door and opened it. Actually, it was Aaron. "Hay, Megan!" He yelled. "Look what I caught!" He pulled me in, in a bag like a net. "I caught a Alex!" Aaron lighted up like a light bulb he was so happy. "AARON! GET ME OUT OF HERE! I'LL SUFFACATE IN HERE!" I screamed. So Megan picked up Aaron by his shirt and dumped me out on the floor. I wobbled and jiggled and squirmed all around the floor until Megan came over and told me to please stop. Later, Megan sat me on the couch next to Aaron. She started walking back and fourth and back mumbling to herself. Then she said, "Okay Aaron, Alex, I want you on your best behavior okay?" Aaron sat up straight and scratched his head. I sat up and fell on the floor. "Now that is a sign of miss-behavior," Megan spat at me. Ms. Behavior is a lady that is really bad and scary and mean to kids who are bad. "Just be quiet and don't bother Rudy!" She pulled me up. "Why did you call her RUDY?" I asked. She froze and her eyes grew big and stayed open really wide. "That is her name, Alex" she whispered, sarcastically. "Oooh!" I yelled really loud, making Aaron laugh. "You are not to mess up this night, because she hasn't seen me in years," She said in a mad tone. Aaron ran away into the other room and I heard a thump. Megan turned around and sucked on her bottom lip. "Aaron ran into the laundry again," She said with a sigh. We all rushed into the door. Aaron sat up. "Aaron, get out of there. "Megan said loud. Later, Megan had me and Aaron sitting in the kitchen inside of a cabinet. She told us to zip the lips and so Aaron tried to rip open my mouth when I shut it. Megan ran into the other room and stayed quiet for 4 hours at least. A knock was at the door so the door opened and a voice said, "Hey, Megan! How's it going?" Then Megan said, "Great." Then the voice said, "Where's your brother?" Megan said sarcastically, "Gone! Oh no! Where is he Rudy?" she stepped over to the cabinet me and Aaron were in. Aaron giggled and I gasped and shut his mouth with my hand. "What's that laughing in the cabinet and why are you covering it?" Rudy asked. Megan opened the cabinet door and pulled Aaron out by his feet and she started shaking. "D-didn't I tell you? W-we are having turkey for dinner tonight!" she said, and held Aaron up. He pretended to be dead. "Now," Megan said. "We are going to cook the chicken!" She put Aaron into the stove and shut the door. "Uh, Megan, that was Aaron you put in there," Rudy said, confused and quiet. "Uh, funny you'd say that. I- I thought it was kind of big for a chicken," Megan said. "Uh, Rudy, why don't you go and uh, wait for the food!" Rudy walked into the other room. "Okay Aaron." Megan opened up the stove and put in a nice chicken from the refrigerator. She also told me and Aaron to go quietly into the other room and sit down. Rudy was in there. "Hi Rudy," I said. I sat down. "Hi." She said. Aaron sat down too. Later, Megan said, "Uh, Rudy, I think we should write for a while." Megan reached into a drawer and pulled out an old diary. "Oh! Rudy! My Kindergarten journal!" she smiled. So did Rudy. "Let's here it," Said Rudy.  
The old writing bored me so much that I ran into the kitchen where Aaron had been hidden. "Look what I found!" Aaron, the small 6 year old boy said. "What is it," I said, with a questionable tone. "I don't know, but I found it in the backyard yesterday," he said. He held up a golden stone looking object. It caught my attention really much. I told him to put it down, and then I ran into the living room to tell Megan about the golden thing. "Come see what your little brother found!" I yelled at her. "What is..." Megan was interrupted by the sound that was, CRASH! "Aaron!" she screeched really loudly, making my ears burn. She ran into the kitchen faster than a car, and screamed again. I ran in there and my eyes opened wide... BECAUSE...Aaron was gone!  
  
SPY KIDS  
  
"W- Why are we going out at a quarter to 8:00" I asked with a grin.  
Megan looked back at me and shook her head in confusion.  
"Alex, we are going to find Aaron. I was supposed to be baby-sitting him tonight." Baby sitting is when you sit on a baby, except we don't have a baby...Aaron's like a baby! Then I saw something I love......... A letter was on the door!

Megan read, "If you ever want to see your precious little friend, come to the old warehouse tonight or else." And now Megan stared for a long time. "Um...Rudy! Get some money from my bank. Alex, stay here until I say go," Megan said really fastly. I nodded. "Uh, do you know how to drive?" I asked. Megan stared at me. "No!" she yelled, "I'm twelve." Rudy slid into the room with a jar of money. "Great!" Megan whispered. "Now come out with me." She ran outside really fast. I looked at Rudy. She looked at me, then the door. "Let's go!" she said in a loud voice. We ran outside and saw Megan at the end of the road. She called for us to cross the street towards her. There was some traffic but apparently we didn't care. Rudy went first. When the cars were gone she flew to the other side. I forgot to look when I crossed, so I ended up right between death and life. This was it, I closed my two eyes real tight. I was stuck in the middle of the road. I heard car horns, but I kept my hands covered tight around my eyes. Then I started hearing screeches and yelling and smashing. I heard Megan yell, "ALEX!" and when I opened my eyes, I was in the middle of a large car crash with fire, and cars flipped over on their backs. All of them were a wreck, and in a big circle. Then it happened, Megan yelled, "Watch out!" and I turned around but a big piece of the cars flew at my head and hit, then I was flung out onto a crashed car. What happened next, I don't know. I was asleep. But I wasn't tired. The last word I heard was Megan yelling, "ALEX!" I opened my eyes. I saw black sky. Then Megan and Rudy came up . "Are you okay?" they asked. I opened my eyes wide and sat up. I rubbed my head and looked around. The cars were more smashed and pieces of tires and stuff were all over the place. And the fire was huge! Like it exploded or something. I walked away from the crash and pretended that I didn't do it. Megan looked at me and shook her head. Rudy looked at my forehead. I had a bump on it. I kind of smiled in a sad way. "Find a taxi," Megan said. We caught a taxi and hopped in. Oh, and we paid him. "Alex, it's the time, we're going to have to be Spy Kids today," Megan said, then she smiled in an odd way.  
  
THE START OF A NEW LIFE.  
  
"Well, Megan got the idea, I didn't. I was the one who got my brain knocked out by a dumb car piece. She's the one who is quick, smart and apparently good at tricks. Actually, today, I turn 8. Wonderful. The day I have to save a boys life. And no one will sing the happy birthday song. And also, we're sleeping under a tree," I told Rudy, who was still awake. Megan was sleeping on the ground and mumbling in her sleep. "Well, I still think you're older even though no one sang the song." Rudy was real nice. "Your right!" I said. "I feel smarter. Do I seem smarter?" "Yes. It's scary how much you've gotten smarter. It's like your nine," Rudy said. "Watch this!" I ran over and knelt down next to Megan. Then, I opened her eyes and her mouth. "ALEX! MOM WILL KILL YOU, TWIRP!" She yelled in her sleep. Then she was silent. "Hay Megan," I said. "Go get the butter." She sat up and walked into the street. We both, Rudy and I, looked out into the distance. A car was coming. I looked back at Megan. "Uh oh!" I said. "Uh, Megan, bring me the butter!" right when the car was about to hit her, she ran back towards us, wide awake. She screamed. "Megan, it's my birthday," I said. "Well, do you want a cake or something?" she asked. "Oh yeah!" I shouted real loud so the world could hear. "Shut up!" Megan said. "Let's go and get some food over there." She pointed to a little restaurant. "Sure," I said. We entered the...BAR. Everyone looked at us. Then they got up and crowded around us. One said, "Get out. This is my bar. OUT NOW!" "It's my birthday, you know," I mumbled. The big man grabbed me by my shirt and pulled me into the air. "I DON'T CARE ABOUT YOUR LITTLE BIRTHDAY PARTY," He growled. "Well I do!" I said. He held up to the wall. "Your going to rip my shirt you know," I told him. "Shut up!" he yelled as he threw me across the room. As I was about to hit a wall, I grabbed on to a pipe on the ceiling at hung there. "Wow!" I said quietly. "Um, I don't like people hurting my cousin, DUDE," Megan said. "I don't like you guys very much okay?" growled the big man. He tossed Megan up at the ceiling. She flipped backwards then before hitting the ground, grabbed onto the same pipe as me. The guys in the bar took out sharp objects. Me and Megan studied them closely. "Megan," I whispered. "What do we do?" "Okay. First, they come at us with sharp objects, we kick them in the face, they swing the objects at our feet, and we back-flip onto the top of the pipe landing on our feet. Then we walk across the pipe until we get to the edge of the ceiling, and jump down onto the floor..." I interrupted Megan and whined, "I can't flip and balance and land, Megan!" "You can do it if you give it a shot. So Let's go!" First, Megan flung herself on top of the pipe. She was now over me and walking across the pipe. I tried to lift my feet onto the pipe but I couldn't reach. So, Since Megan forgot to kick the men in the face, I did her a favor. I kicked the dumb guys in the face, and took one of their weapons. "Megan! I got a saw!" Megan was against the edge of the ceiling now. "Wait Alex, that isn't a saw! It's a SPY GADGET!" Megan yelled. I started to slip a little. "Megan! I'm slipping!" I yelled. "Toss me up the gadget!" Megan yelled. "Quick!." I tossed her the gadget and held onto the pipe tighter. "Make it a rope gun!" I yelled. "I'll try!" Megan shouted. She pushed a button. The whole bar floor opened up and under it was a black hole. "Woah!" I shouted real surprised. "Wrong button!" Megan said, she pushed another button. The walls opened up. Behind the walls was some kind of aircraft, some very styling spy gear, and some vehicle. "Okay. Megan, what should we do now?" I asked. "Alex, this is the start of a whole new Life," Megan smiled. She then jumped off and landed next to the black hole. "You too Alex!" Megan looked up at me. I started to slip. Then I fell. When I was close enough. I tried to flip. I landed on my back, then got up. "Ouch!" I yelled. Well, apparently Megan was already getting dressed up. Some machine was quickly putting on some spy outfit. "Megan!" I called out. She was almost ready with her outfit when she turned around. "Alex, get on your outfit and come on." I turned around Then, I was getting machine-dressed in a new outfit. I pushed the button, "Cool." And I got a fan on my face. "OKAY!" I yelled. "THAT'S ENOUGH!" I walked towards Megan. She gave me a weapon and some strange gear. "Wait! I know what we do!" I said. "I read it in a book once. We can become Spy's!" "ALEX!" Megan mumbled. "That was the general idea!"  
A LITTLE TRIP  
Once we found Rudy, We dressed her up in the outfit and guided her into this aircraft. Once we were in, I asked, "How do we start this thing?" suddenly, all the lights in the ship went on and a computerized voice said, "TO START, PULL BACK THE LEVER TO THE MIDDLE AND PRESS START." "That's easy," Megan said. She pulled the lever the ship jerked a little, she pressed START and off went the ship. Megan obviously didn't know how to steer the ship because it was a little jerky. "Megan, this is a great birthday present," I said. Then I fell asleep leaving all the work to my cousin and Rudy. I just slept there most of the time until, I felt jerking and crashing. I felt bumping and woke up again. "We're going to die!" yelled Megan. "Panic." Rudy screamed. I saw the rocks flying past us. I couldn't believe it we were actual spies. We were actually under water! In a sub! "Megan, are we..." I began. "Yes. We're losing power. WE'RE GOING DOWN!" Megan held on tight. Through the jerking, I felt something wet. "Uh, are we close to the warehouse yet?" I yelled. "No. Not even close," real sad. Suddenly, I felt really wet. "I'm wet,". "You peed in this ship?" Megan asked. "NO!" I screamed. "I mean, I'm leaking over here." I called. "Stop peeing! There's a toilet back here you know." Rudy said. I turned around towards Rudy. "No. We are drowning." "Open the doors!" Megan cried. "Good idea." I opened the door and swam out into the sea. Followed by Megan. But not Rudy! Out of breath, I swam into the ship again and searched for Rudy. She wasn't there! I swam up to the surface and took a deep breath. Megan and Rudy were behind me up at the surface. I turned around. "Wait, Megan. Quiet. Listen." I heard beeping. "It's gonna' blow!" we tried to swim away, but it was too late. It exploded, blowing us into the air with a huge wave. "Put on your jet packs, we're going up!" Megan shouted. "Okay!" I yelled. I put on my jet pack. It was hard to start up. It was as hard as controlling that ship. But, we got up and in a row and flew over the explosion. "Close one. I hope I don't have to do that again,". "Sorry, Alex, but we do have to!" Megan closed her eyes as she yelled that. "Okay!" I said, acting as her slave. We swerved around a giant rock, but my jet pack got caught on a sharpish point. I was flung to the rock and was stuck there.  
"Megan!" I yelled. She was past me. She heard me, because she turned around towards the rock and headed for me. Rudy continued to fly away. I don't know where she went. My jet pack was off. Megan stood on the rock and took off her jet pack. But it was still on. I hung there, wiggling around since I can't balance. Megan took out the gadget and pushed a button. I flew up in the air, and Megan controlled me. "Megan, I can't take this." She turned the gadget off, and I... "I'm falling!" I yelled. Megan looked up at me. Before I hit the water, Megan swooped under me and caught me right on time. "Happy Birthday!" she yelled. "Yah! And thank you for breaking my eardrums." I grouched. "Rudy left, you know." "She's just trying to show off. She thinks she'll get Aaron before we do." Said Megan, holding me up in the air. "You can put me down now!" I yelled. So she did. I fell about ten feet down and then my jet-pack responded. "Were cooking now!" I yelled, flying up in the air. Megan's watch made a noise. "Yes," she answered. I zoomed up beside her. "Megan, Alex, we have some bad news. Aaron has been taken to a secret hide away some where by the beach. The name, it's a code. We can't tell you because you'll have to find that out." Said the watch. "Okay." Said Megan, grabbing for the device. "We are here, Alex." "Right." I nodded. "We need to go here." Megan pointed at the device. "That's miles away, though,". "Uhuh." Megan nodded. "Gotcha'" I said. When I turned my head, I headed straight through the glass of a building, flipped around and hit the ground. "Ouch!" I yelled. I got off the glass and looked around where I was. Megan was gone, and I was in some one's fancy bedroom. I searched around the tables. My hand hit a button and the mirror on the wall flipped over, under it was a fold up screen, which un-folded. "Hello, Alexander Corell. We have been planning our cloning attack. Little Aaron here is screaming for help and, we just need you to take samples of his brain for the cloning. And then, he dies and we rule the earth, cloning all children and using them as slaves. What do you think?" a man on the screen asked. I fell onto the bed and started thinking. I heard someone walking into the room, so I jumped into the closet. A man and a women walked in. I gasped. They were my parents! I fell backwards, still keeping my eyes on my parents. "So, Jamie, what's the plan?" asked my dad. "Well, I would like to take a sample of little Aaron's brain. Then, we clone him, I thought we could do the same to every kid and use them as slaves. And Alexander Corell is the man with the machines. You know, he makes useful machines for us. As if you didn't remember, Joseph." Said the man on the screen. I got a clue. My parents told me to go to Megan's house as a set up. It was a way for them to turn to their evil selves, and steel Aaron. They stole Aaron as a test for the new cloning machine, then they could clone every kid and use them as slaves to rule the earth. But why Aaron? Out of all those other kids, you ask. Because, my parents wanted us to come over there and try to save Aaron, but they'd be trapping us too. I had half of the plan. I listened. "Sally, if your son comes, we get him tied up." Said the man on the screen. "Okay, Rudy." Said my dad. "Rudy!" I whispered. I took out my watch and called Megan. "Alex!" Megan screamed. "I'm stuck in a major wind storm!" "Megan!" I whispered. "I'm in the hide out." "IN the hide out?" Megan asked. "Yes. I found something really bad out. They are going to clone Aaron, and then clone every child in the world. It's Rudy behind this all." I explained. "really?" Megan asked. "Yes. My mom and dad want Aaron. They are evil. Come over here,". Then I turned off the watch. I got out of the closet and headed out the door. I walked through the lobby, filled with other grown- ups. I looked for my parents. But something caught my eye. Me. I was at the other side of the lobby talking to some people. I looked at him. It was a clone. I was cloned and I didn't know it. I headed for the other me. "Hay Alex," to me. I pretended not to here. I passed him, into a hall way. He followed. I was scared, and very slow. So I took off my jet pack and continued to walk. Then I ran, once I noticed that he was speeding up. I yelled, "Suction cups!" And I jumped onto the ceiling. I ran across the ceiling. I let go of my hands so I hung by my feet. I grabbed onto the clone of me and held on tight. Then, I came to a door and ran into that room. It had a ceiling fan twice the size of Megan. I swung my clone up into the fan. He grabbed onto a passing blade, and swung around really fast. I followed him with my eyes. Then, I grabbed onto his feet and was flung around in circles. "Hey, Alex!" I said. "Where is this Alexander Corell?" He didn't talk. "Come on! What is he doing?" I asked. I climbed up onto a blade next to him. "Where is he?" I yelled. I grabbed his hand and pulled it off the blade. "Tell me or I'll pull the other hand off." I warned. "Where is Alexander Corell?" I yelled. My clone shouted, "He's on the island. Far from here. The secret hide out." I let go of the fan and flew out of the room. "Excuse me, I'm flying here!" I screamed. I was headed for a big window, and I passed some mysterious man with long hair and a beard. I quickly covered my head with my hands and broke through the glass as fast as a bullet. I stopped flying, since the glass was slowing me down. I started to fall. "Megan!" I yelled. I landed hard in the sand on my hands and knees. The glass fell on my head. Then, I looked high up. I saw my clone jumping down at me. I ran through the sand and hid behind a giant rock. The clone was far away. I took a peek over the edge of the rock and saw a dark thing running towards me. "He's here," to myself. "Megan. Pick up. It's me, Alex." I whispered into the watch. "Alex?" asked a voice. "This is Megan. What's up? It's pitch black outside and you know it's not good to split up." "Okay. Megan, I have a clone. I don't know how I got it. Where are you now?" I said. "I'm in the building." Megan whispered. "Where?" I asked. "I don't know, but I'm passing a huge fan on the ceiling,". I got very excited. "Okay, you're near me," "There's a crashed window, I'm headed towards it, Alex." Megan replied. "Great, now head out the window, you'll see me behind the...." Before I finished, the clone grabbed my shirt and held me in the air. "Wee! I'm flying!" I yelled. My clone threw me away out into the distance. I was headed back towards the crashed window, but then Megan came out of the crashed window, and we collided. "We're falling, Megan!" I yelled. "You'll survive Megan, We both will!" "Are you sure?" asked Megan. "Yes." I yelled. But, before we could say anything else, we hit the hard part of the sand and didn't move anymore. I started going blinder and blinder until, I couldn't do anything  
THE SURVIVORS I opened an eye. Then, the other. I was in some room filled with science. A lab! I sat up. I looked all around, but no one was there. Except, something was covered up with blankets next to me. I pulled down the blankets. I couldn't believe what I saw. My heart went faster. My body felt cold. I wanted to scream, but then, I couldn't. It was Megan. She looked dead. She was pail and wasn't moving a tiny bit. In pain, I got off of the, "bed thing" and walked around. Then, I flew up in the air and hit the wall shivering. I saw, both Megan and me, cloned. We were standing behind glass or something. It was weird. It was me, but still. I looked around for anyone who might know anything about this. Then, I remembered Megan! I ran back to the "bed thing" and ended up shaking her around. "WAKE UP STUPID!" I yelled real loud. I pushed her. "Wake up!" I screamed. I was so scared. I looked up and noticed that there was a door behind the "bed thing". I Looked down at Megan again. "Wake up!" I said. I pushed her again. She fell onto the floor. "Why don't you feel this?" I asked her. I rolled her over and she just sat there. Her eyes were open. Then I noticed something. A line on her neck. I touched it and something amazing happened. The ears popped out, and the for-head opened up and the eyes rolled inside out. The jaw lowered down and the teeth light up. The neck stretched out, the nose went inside the body. And the face came off. "Wow! My cousin's a robot...Now I like her better!" I said. "Hello, Alexander Corlell." Said a voice from Megan's opened head. "What?" I was freaked out now. "You are the survivor." Said the voice. "What? What about Megan?" I asked. "Her too." Said the voice. "Then who did I just destroy?" I asked the voice. "her medical dummy. To test medicine on and such." Said the voice. "Oops!" I said. "Who are you?" I asked. "I'm a fully holographic women." Said the voice. "The name's 200-43A RRTY2." "What does that stand for?" I asked. "Nothing. It's just something a crazy inventor made up." Said the women. "You can call me GIRL." Said the girl. "Carry me around and I can help you get to Alexander Corell's hide out." "Cool!" I said. I took a controller out of the dummy Megan's face and put it in my back-pack. I was headed out the hall, when I saw these footprints. They were huge. Like the size of a bear. I followed them out the door and through the sand. My head looked up to find something I'll never want to see again. A giant creature staring in my eyes. "Uh, Hi!" I said nervously. The creature roared loudly into the air and started taking some big steps towards me. I couldn't see it's face because it was too dark. I stumbled back and landed on the ground looking up. I only saw black, it was dark outside. In fear of the darkness, I sat up, but was quickly swooped up in the giant hands! "LET ME GO STUPID BIG GUY!" I yelled. Next thing I know, I'm tied up to the wall of a cave next to Megan. She was very grumpy. I looked at her, and then at the giant creature. It was on the other side of the cave lighting a fire with a tree. "Hay, Megan." I whispered. My whisper echoed off the cave walls. "What Alex." Megan yelled. The echo was loud this time and the creature turned around at us. "Oops!" Megan said. The creature looked back at his fire. I wiggled around on the wall to try and get out. I slipped down out of the ropes and fell all the way down. It was a really long fall. I looked up at Megan and she was falling out of the ropes. When she caught up to me, I asked her what the giant is. "A Siberian Mountain Cyclops. He lives in the mountains,". "What time is it?" I asked. "11:45, why?" Megan said, slowly. "Time to jet pack," turning on my backpack. I blasted up in the air and I flew over to the Mountain Cyclops. He looked over at me and swatted at me. He caught my jet pack and ripped it off. I went flying down to the ground. I grabbed onto his table and ran across it. He took out bug poison and started squirting at me. I Jumped out of the way. The Cyclops had no ideas. I hid behind bread and waited. He walked over and picked up the bread with me hanging on it. He slammed the bread down onto the table and began to slice pieces off the bread. I kept crawling away when the knife chopped at me. Finally, I popped out and said, "You got me! I'm dying! AAA!" and fell down. He bent down to see if I were dead. I woke up, reached over, and pushed salt in his face. He screamed and put his hands over his eyes. He also fell flat on the floor. He fell real bouncy and I flew out of the table. I fell and fell and fell and hit the ground. I felt really dizzy after that except I don't know why. "No problem,". I stood up. "Megan. Pick up!" I whispered into my watch. "Oh, hi Alex. Did you forget about me! I'm still falling down a pit. You could be a nice little cousin if you followed me, maybe save me?" "Sure Megan I killed the Mountain Cyclops!" I whispered. "Great." Said Megan, then the watch was broke. "All righty then. I guess I could use some bouncy shoes. Springs came out of my shoes. "UH OH!" I shot into the air and started twirling and flipping! And plus I couldn't stop. "Watch! I need your help. Give me some thing to stop!" The watch shot out arrows with strings tied to the end. I suddenly stopped and hung in the air by my arm. "Sweet!" I yelled. My voice echoed off the walls. A large rumbling came and the ceiling cracked up into bits. I Looked under me. Sixty foot drop. Well, "Falling down thing." I shouted but that wasn't a real thing. "AAA" I wiggled around until I was falling out of the string. But, my jet pack was caught on the string. I tried to grab it, but I fell away. I went into the pit where Megan was. "Okay, close one." I whispered. I looked down. Under me was spike city. Firing blades of fear I had to pass. I quick put both of my hands on two rocks and also my feet. I was 10 feet from being dead. I chose life, and grabbed onto a rock from the wall I was standing on. It fell out and light poured into the pit. I tore out another. More and more until I opened a whole new passage. It was life, or not. I felt a gun pointed againced my head as I walked in. "Well, Alex. I've been waiting for you to show up." "Little Aaron was crying for you, and I thought you'd like to see him!" I looked up to see who was talking. It was the man I saw on the screen. "Who are you?" I yelled at him, and I pushed the gun away from my head. "I am Alexander Corell. I believe we've got your family here,". He pushed a button and the ceiling opened up. I looked up. I saw my mom, dad, sister, and Aaron. "You're missing one." Alexander Corell looked at me. "What do you mean? I have your family." "No. You're missing me, and Megan,". Alexander looked up. "Oh. Hahahahaha! I have tons of Megans and tons of you. I looked behind me!" There was a crowd of clones of me and Megan. They looked ready to fight. "Megan!" I yelled. Megan fell into the room. "Right behind you Alex!" she yelled. I turned around. "Oh,". I charged at one of the clones of me and it put his hand out and grabbed my shirt. "Megan!" I yelled. He picked me up and started spinning me around above his head. "AAAAAA!" I screamed. Megan looked over at me. She was fighting a clone of herself. My zipper of my backpack unzipped and all of my gear flew out until I was left a stupid empty back-pack. Then, the robot threw me across the dark room. I was speeding past everything in the room and I finally hit a chair and a desk with a computer on top. I landed on the key board of the computer and an alarm went off. I went crashing to the ground. "OOOW!" I screamed. The chair tipped over on to me. Then, printer paper fell on top of that.  
  
MAYBE A NEW MISSION  
  
The alarm was loud and high. I heard Megan scream and then I felt the floor shake and I heard things being smashed. I was all covered up, and I couldn't see in there! Then I was pulled out of the pile of stuff and helped up onto my two feet. "Come on, Alex the alarm is actually meaning something bad is about to happen. I suggest that we scram,". "But, the birdies stole my papers, mommy," in a shaky voice, then I fell onto the ground. Then, I guess Megan dragged me across the floor, passed the broken robots of me, and dropped me out into the pit. When I woke up, I was hanging upside-down over a fire. I opened my eyes. I couldn't see at first, But I knew that my head was burning and my stomach was in my head. "I want breakfast, Mommy," quietly. "Alex, it's 12:36," strictly. When my eyes adjusted, I yelled, "MEGAN! YOU'RE ON THE CEILING!" I screeched, and I swear that my eyes grew bigger than my opened mouth. "No, Alex, you're on the ceiling," like it was no big deal. "And why is this?" I asked, trying to get right side up. "Because, you're being saved,". "WHA?" I asked. "No, it's where,". "My head's on fire." I explained. "Get down." Megan yelled. I tried to swing down away from the fire. I made it, but I knocked over a few tables. I looked up at where I was hanging. A huge sign said, "LIFE SAVERS." I read it out loud. "Yah, but look closely,". I tried to climb up closer to see the sign. "No, Dufus. Put these on." Megan tossed me a normal pair of sunglasses. "Trust me, Alex." Megan looked up at me. I shrugged my shoulders. When I put the eye piece over my eye, it magnified the sign. "LIFE SAVERS, 998759432." I read. "That's a code. It's another Spy Kid's number." Megan told me. "We have been given a letter, and invitation to a meeting with the other Spy Kids." "Cool! Megan, my hair is black! And I can style it." I messed up my hair. "Alex, take the Spy outfit off, it's supposed to be a nice party. I took my Spy outfit off, and I was automatically dressed in a zigzag covered button up shirt with jeans that were covered in pockets. "Ooh! I'm different." I screamed. "So am I." Megan stood next to me in the mirror. She was wearing a fancy red dress.  
We were sitting next to some girls. Once and a while I'd stare at them. They were messing with their hair. The one sitting next to me had blond hair and was older than me, but younger than Megan. She was pretty thin, and she kept talking about her missions. "Dinner is served." Said the waiter, bringing in a tray with food on it. I looked down at my food. Every one else besides the blond hared girl next to me looked at their food. She just started eating and all the others, pushed their food into the middle of the table. When I looked at the girl, she was green, and everyone stared at her. She screamed, with a mouth full of food and her head BLEW up! "AAAH!" I screamed. The only thing left of her was a skeleton and a dress laying on top of blood. Every one got out of their seats and looked at the dead body. "Meredith!" yelled the two other girls. I found this strange, also because my face was covered with blood, but it didn't taste like blood. "Hot Sauce!" I yelled. I examined the skeleton. I ripped off a bone and chewed it. "Sugar,". "It's a trick." I stood up. "Who did this?" I yelled. Megan was sitting at one end of the table. She was lifeless and she was staring. I walked over to her. I noticed her plate. The food had bites off it! I looked up at Megan. I was so scared. "No! You can't. Your okay right?" I said in a shaky voice. "Please say something! MEGAN! You can't do this!" I started backwards. As much as I didn't want it to happen, Megan blew up! I screamed. "MEGAN!" Blood shot at me. I noticed that she was made of sugar and hot sauce too. I tapped my head with my finger. "A trap!" I yelled. I felt a light bulb light up in my head. "They have been captured!" I smiled, and remembered my braces I had gotten. I felt my teeth warm up and out shot a laser, firing all the guests in the head. They all blew up, and soon the room was covered in fake blood. "They are all gone!" I smiled again, trying to not let my stupid braces to shoot out lasers again. "It's my job! To save the world!" I said. Then I looked in the mirror. I had black hair that was beyond messy, but it was cool! I didn't even put on my outfit, I thought I looked cooler in regular clothes. "Now, I have lost my jet-pack, so what do I use?" I said, trying to wipe the hot sauce off my clothes. Then I saw it, right in the parking lot, and its name was, a thing to ride in! I ran into the thing and put the key in. I turned it, and it started up. "How do I drive this?" I yelled. "I guess I pull this lever back!" I yelled. The thing shifted and backed up, bumping into the building. "Now forward!" I pushed the lever forward, and the thing sped forward. I was pressed against the seat because of the speed. I couldn't see anything out the window. Then, I felt a hard, painful crash and I heard explosions of lightning. I flew out of the thing and started grabbing for life. I WAS FALLING DOWN A CLIFF! "It IS The End!" I yelled. I kept falling and thought I might want to start a journal called, "Alex's book of world records of falling from high places." Uhuh! Good idea. I'll kill myself if I land, I kept thinking. But I didn't die. I used my watch. "Megan!" I screamed. The watch shot out sparks, and then the screen popped out revealing an image of Megan. While the car was tearing apart on the rocks below me, "Alex, are you falling?" Megan asked, and the watched sparked. "No. I'm having a tea party with Dr. Happy....Of coarse I'm falling!" I yelled. "Well, as you can see, I know where Aaron is..." Megan said, holding her watch in front of Aaron's face. "Hi, Alex," in a sad voice. "Where are you?" I asked, trying to see how long a drop I was about to land. "I am somewhere," but I sighed. "Great," sarcastically. Then, the sparks shot out and effected my braces. I felt and electric shock in my mouth and my teeth light up with red. I started flipping and twirling from the pain. Then, landed on a small ledge. I slid to the edge and fell, grabbing onto the edge of the small ledge. I looked down at the ground, it was about 124 feet. Nope! Not dropping from here! I tapped on my watch. "Megan!" I yelled. "Oh well." I moaned. "Death it is." I closed my eyes and let go of the ledge. I felt air gushing at me, then a sharp pain in my back. I screamed, and my eyes remained open wide. I had landed. But it didn't look like I had fallen 124 feet. "Alex!" I heard a voice say. It sounded like a girl. The odd thing was, when I saw who it was, it was a boy. And the boy's name was Steven. "Steven, what are you doing here?" I asked, in pain. Steven is a very thin boy with black hair and tan skin. "Alex, I work at the SPY KID'S ACADEMY,". I got up onto my feet. "Nice hair." "Oh yeah,". "I put hair dye in," Steven stood there. I whispered, "I think it's permanent." I stood back and turned around. I was standing on another ledge of course, and then so was Steven. "Steve, how'd you get down here?" I asked. "That's the thing, dude." Steven started up. I had never heard him say DUDE like that. "I didn't come down like you did." He looked up, with a questioned face on. "I climbed up!" "HOW?" The word HOW shot out of my mouth, yet so did my braces. They laser shot at something and knocked it over. Then I looked back at Steven. I know what we have to do.  
  
STEVEN AND ALEX'S MISSIONS.  
  
"Okay, Alex, give me your gadget." Steven forced it out of my back-pack which is now not a jet-pack anymore. That really sucks okay? Steven laughed, and he took out a cannon. "You're not going to hurt it, are you?" I asked him. "No," Steven said, then he bit his lip. "Yes. But it won't kill it." He groaned. He stuffed the gadget into the cannon and lit the match. "Back off!" Steven yelled. We hid behind a rock pillar supporting the balcony of the cliff. "Here it goes." I yelled. The cannon shot mr. Gadget into the air and in blew up, into a billion gajillion pieces. It was a horrible sight. I once and a while had to cover my eyes. I wanted Steven to know where the castle on the island was. But the fact was that I didn't know myself where it was either. I just got up and thought about the world.  
  
I was so small and it was so big. Wow. I just couldn't leave here now, I had to save the world from cloning and destruction! I remembered Meredith. I thought she was a loser until she blew up. Then that changed everything, and that made me think of Megan. I couldn't just let her die! I had to get her and Aaron back to their house before 7:00 in the morning, and now, it was 12:43. I checked my watch over and over again until we were headed up the mountain. See, I couldn't see a darn thing even if I tried, but that was different due to Steven, because he had a night vision scanner. I so wanted one of those. I just stared at a black nothing, what I thought was the sky. Once and a while a rock would fall under me, and I never fell for anyone, I just kept climbing, though it was hard. I couldn't help but wanting to land on the ground, and I wished we were only 2 feet away, we would have been able to jump off and go find a secret path. I felt my hand land on a cool surface, enough room that it could possibly be the top. I hesitated, then with great triumph, clenched a wedged rock that was big enough for my weight, and squirmed myself up onto the top. Once I turned around to face my friend, I grabbed his arm and pulled him up. We both just sat there for a while staring at each other, I guess we were just surprised that we had made it up to the top in 2 hours. Steven stared at what we were now leaning on and he bit his lower lip. "We're here," gasping for breath. I didn't quite see what he meant by HERE.  
Megan sat in a wet and soggy room of an old warehouse with Aaron, Meredith, Rudy, and three other girls all tied up. The water was heated and turning into mist that soaked out the kid's breath and rang the only air into water. Soon, Megan spit out water instead of air and the room started filling with warm water soaking up their socks. This was not a very good thing.  
  
I stared up at "HERE" and almost fell off the cliff losing my only balance. I looked at Steven. "Is this it?" I asked. "What's it?" Steven asked. "The top of the cliff," with relief and triumph. We stood up and grasped the last rock. I felt a shaky feeling under my hand, and the rock broke out of the wall guiding me down off the edge of the cliff! Steven reached his hand down and I grabbed it. I was saved!  
  
The water was rising up to Megan's neck. All of the girls, and poor Aaron, had to sit up straight. At the moment, the water reached Megan's mouth, it was over Aaron's face. Megan screamed and looked at Aaron, and he was under the water and struggling to get out of the ropes. Just then, Megan heard a noise of splashing water as if someone were walking into that room. When she turned, a face was looking at her from 15 feet away. "Hello," and he had a strong English accent. "AAAAH!" Megan tried screaming but she was silent. Her face was pasted towards Aaron now. Megan reached down and broke the rope off Aaron. He fell deep under the water and swam to the top. The man dived under water and grabbed Aaron. The screams and cries faded, and Megan was left with the other girls. "Help!" She yelled at the top of her lungs.  
  
At the top of the fairly large cliff, I took a deep breath. The echoes of a scream stuck in my head. "What was that?" I asked. "I didn't hear anything." Steven said. "Use the Tracker." He suggested. "Okay." And with hope, I pushed the button. "It's coming from 234 miles away," looking into the heroic sky. "We made it, baby!" I said. "Alex, let's look for some sign of the building," peering out into the air. "There!" I pointed at a sign that said, "Some sign of the building." "Wow,". "That is weird. But, we are getting closer! Yet another sign read, "But, you are getting closer." I sighed. "Hmm, maybe we could follow these signs to get to the Water Factory,". We stepped up on to the pointed top of the cliff to look over, and found out that we were in huge luck. Under us, was a roof top of some Mexican food bar. "Steven, let's jump!" I yelled, and my voice echoed off all of the mountains and rumbled the earth. "Are you crazy? That roof is only cheap wood and cheap shingles." Steven whispered, making him a good example for my voice. "Well then let's die," sarcastically. "No, let's just walk onto the roof." Steven whispered so quiet, it was almost nothing. Just then, I puled him down and jumped onto the roof. Steven crashed down on the cheap shingles. "See? No falling!" I said, and started going bouncing. I jumped and with that, the roof cracked open and we broke through the ceiling. "Hey lookee here, man!" Some Spanish man said. I layed on the floor twisted and covered in dust and shingles, and so was Steven, but he standed the pain. "We got ourselves some Mexican dancers!" The same Spanish man brightened like a light bulb and grabbed our arms. "You guys ready?" He said, towing us into a dark room with cloth all over the place, and I felt sea sick. "Now just like we did in the rehersal. By the way, did you lose weight?" He rushed around with us. Then, left us alone. "WOW. We try to save some people and we get caught in a Mexican dance party." I groaned. "Yah. I think they are EVIL!" Steven said EVIL in a creepy voice. "Yah, but we don't know how to!" I said. "Yah. I don't know either," and stared around the room. The door barged open that moment. "You are on!" The man yelled. Steven looked in the sky like it was the last time he'd see a black ceiling. "Bye, bye. Here it goes!" He shrugged his shoulders and we headed into the front of the place where the stars glowed in our eyes. "HAHAHAHA! What nut house are you running?" One of the men at the table shouted. "None!" Yelled the man who guided us onto the platform. We stood there not sure what to do, staring at the dirty people sitting all around the muddy room. "Please give a round of applause for our sacrifices!" The man yelled into the microphone that leads to the speaker behind us. "Sacrifice? Wow, no way!" Steven yelled shaking his head. "Now run," changing the tone as each word comes, in a lower tone, a much scarier tone. I felt a chill run down my back. "Steven, we're dead." I muttered in a quiet tone, keeping sure that the man doesn't see me. Steven nodded and that meant yes, but we'll make it. Gun ends were pointed directly in my face, and at the same time, we both stood on one of the tables and tried to duck. "Say bye!" Said the evil man. "Bye!" Steven laughed, then he noticed that a joke is not good now. A loud noise blared in my ears, a quiet bursting noise, and the gun was shot, loading me with fright. This gun was a person in the back row, so as long as we were to disappear, we would die any quick moment until, a crash noise was heard, and someone yelled, "Duck!" and that was the reflex, and I fell to the table top. The bullet passed the table and hit the glass window behind us. The glass flew all over, but we were ducked for cover. The mysterious person swung down on a rope through the hole we had earlier made and, I sat up, shocked to see.....My sister! "Get in that barrel, don't watch this happen!" We rushed into a barrel nearby and only heard the rough sound of fists hitting skin. "Ouch!" I thought. I popped my head out of the barrel. "That's dad!" I yelled, and yes it was. It was my dad fighting my sister! "It's..." My sister groaned, punching someone's stomach. "...Not him!" She finished, knocking the man over. "Run!" She added. We tumbled out of the barrels and stumbled out of the door and started to flee from the building, so far, so far. The building was a blur, a memory, the fear was an erupting volcano and was rumbling of fire and lava, and any minute would erupt, any minute. I pulled my feet farther in front of me, and then we stopped. A sudden stop, for some unknown reason. Then I realized that we had just heard the sound of a bolt of lightning exploding on the ground, a loud, explosion. The building had been bombed, and whoever did it, must have killed my sister too! Someone was following us, and they were going to find our trackers! "Steven, get out the binoculars and look back at the building,". He did. "I see danger, danger, great danger," quickly taking off the binoculars and putting them away. "Okay, we're stuck here in a desert in Mexico," trying to sound like it was a normal, everyday, good thing to happen. "Use a new thing of yours. You are the spy, dude. Use the manual," shrugged his shoulders, and turned around to view the never ending border, if there was one. I pulled the manual, which was dusty and ripped, from my pocket and started to find letters. My red hair, still flaky with black dye, shimmered in the moonlight. "Okay, the thing on the shoes, there's a switch on the bottom of our shoes. Uh...Switch it," extremely stuttery, trying to read the black on black letters in the pitch black night sky. Nervous, I switched the switch on my shoes, and a a blade shot out of each outer side of my shoe, and the blade folded out into a skateboard shape, and two rockets popped out from the bottom of the board. The rockets shot out a magnetic force, messed with gravity, and I lifted a few inches off the ground. I looked over at Steven, and he lifted up into the air, same length as I. I folded the manual and put it in my pocket. Just a few 3 seconds later, I shot forward past the area. Steven came up next to me. The Hoverboards carried us faster than we could ever run. The flaky black dye in my hair flew out, and I leaned backwards. The board tipped upside down, and kept riding forwards, but my head hung 2 inches from the ground. I screamed, and brushed the desert ground with my hands. "Help! I'm upside down!" I yelled. Just then, I unhooked my feet from the top of the Hoverboard and held onto the bottom of the Hoverboard. The board kept a shield over me, as I hung right side up, holding the bottom as it lifted higher into the air. Steven was still right beside me. I slipped from my board, but then quick-jumped at a leap frog speed back onto the back edge. I hooked my body onto the board like a sloth, but opposite, with by back up against the bottom of the Hoverboard, my face, looking straight down. With one hand, I removed my backpack, and reached it up to the top of the Hoverboard, and I used on arm, slid it through a strap the hung over the top to the bottom, like a seat belt. I was strapped up against the board. Now, I slipped my other arm into the right strap and let go of the edge. "Steven! I am tied to the bottom by my backpack!" I screamed, over excited. Then, I jerked my feet at one angle and turned the board right side up. I could breathe, and see the stars again, until...CRASH! Then, I literally see stars. Steven and me are flying through darkness. Were we flying? I hesitated to open my eyes. When I did, I saw a blurry view of a dim light below me. Then I noticed that the light, so dim before, shine in my eyes. A loud humming noise spread through my ears. Wind kicked in on my face. I closed my eyes again, and we had landed, from whatever we had just gone through! But boy, was the room strange. We were hung from the ceiling on a platform which under it was a huge tubish tank of...Oh nice...Lava. "Steven, La...L...Lava is under us..s...s." I shivered, trying to make out words. It was 46 degrees below zero and I was wearing a striped button up short sleeve and no hat. I shivered like a cartoon character would and that's when I noticed that there was no way off this small round platform, and that there was no roof top, and that the sky was red, and that it was 2:30 in the morning...On a school night...And Megan was gone...And that my parents weren't going to be home until a few days...And that I am just eight on this night, and that I had had a concussion. And then a woke up.  
  
THE NEW GIRL 7:00 in the morning, I got up from the desert ground, and I stared at the hot sun. It was blazing hot. My bare feet burned on the desert floor and Steven was licking the ground. I tilted my head at one angle to see why he'd be doing that dumb thing. "Occonor! Does that taste good?" I yelled, heat bursting down my back. I cast a huge shadow over him, for a tiny kid like I. "Nah!" He said, spitting the sand out all over the place. At school, I could only think of one thing. Failure. I thought that the whole "SAVE THE WORLD ON MY BIRTHDAY" was going to happen like THAT! Instead, I am just an ordinary 8 year old-second grader...With no party. Boohoo me. I could hear Megan right now, "ALEX, ALEX! YOU TWIRPY NERD HEADED FOREST FIRE..." "I AM NOT FOREST FIRE!" I yelled at my thoughts, noticing that I was standing in my seat screaming, and kids were staring at me. "....SAYS SMOKEY TO THE CHILDREN AS THEY LAUGH AT HIS RED HAT! ONLY YOU CAN PREVENT FOREST FIRES!" I added quickly making it into one complete sentence, but nervously laughing. "IT'S A PLAY I'M IN, ABOUT SMOKEY THE BEAR." I slowly added on to the sentence. I guess that Megan is just fine now. Megan, and all of the other girls drowned under the water that night, and Aaron had been tied to the ceiling, and the water was just 3 inches away from his face. Looking down straight into the water, Aaron noticed that his sister was dead.  
I awoke to the loud sound of, WE HAVE A NEW STUDENT! It was a daymare! I was going ballistic, when IT stepped into the class. "This is Hillary, our new student, and would you please introduce yourself!" Said the teacher, half to us, half to the new girl. "I am Hillary. I am normal, and I have nothing to say." She seemed really different. Her hair was long, twisted, and curled, and she wore dark, baggy clothes. Her face was covered in glitter, and her skin was a light tone. She looked old for her age, but her body was small. She sat at the back of the class, and that's when I saw on her shirt, a sign that said, "I'm With Stupid." I stared. "What a idiot,". Let's just say some one heard that. I had just blurted out a bad comment to some one who was right in front of me. "Um, shut up nerd." Hillary said really madly. I don't think really madly is even a word...Oh well. I stood on my chair, "Sit down Alex!" The teacher barged into the space between my desk and Jon's. "I am." I yelled.  
The office is not a lovely place. In there, there is a chair. Thrilling. I had to sit there for a long time. Almost the whole day. The lady who sat at the desk was so smiley. For an eight year old like I was, now considering that I am a well grown 10 year old, that was freaky. "Hi lady," in a cheesy voice. I shuttered. "Hi, Alex,". She knows my name! I wanted to leave, but then realized that there was no point in leaving when your teacher is mad at you. I kept thinking of that punk girl Hillary and I shook my head in disgust. I sat in the office for a long time. By the time my class was in gym, the lady said, "You can go now." So I happily left the boring office and when I was walking down the hall, I saw something that scared me. The janitor. He was never there at the school before...I saw why. He was a terrible man. He was a man who had tracked me down on his computer system. He was...Alexander Corell. The reason that Aaron's gone, and the reason that the robot clones of us are about to attack. And then I stopped to think about this whole experience, and why is he going through all this trouble to get us and Aaron?  
The golden stone. A jolt of excitement ran down my back and I began to feel dizzy. They want the golden stone...But why?  
I decided to leave the school and run away. Run somewhere at least. And I ran so long, passing people and wind blowing through my hair at extreme speed, knocking a branch into my face, but I kept on running. I mostly thought about Hillary and how she was so punky and weird. I for some reason back then hated her, but now a days, she's okay...Sort of attractive....... But anyway, I kept running. And running. But finally slowed down. Then walked the rest until I found a sign that read, "Dead End." "I have to take chances. I'm an eight year old boy. That's what little boys do. They take chances. They save the world!" I stated proudly, looking promisingly up into the morning sky filled with creamy clouds of white. Standing on the tip of a small yet steep hill, I began to search my pockets for any gear I still had from the night before. I only found a card that said, "Alex, don't be mean to your cousins. Be a nice friend to Aaron and Megan and remember not to ask for things!!! We love you!!! -mom and dad" and I dropped to the ground and cried. This was not the way I had planned it and I knew that my mom and dad worked for Alexander Corell and were behind the cloning and had taken DNA from me and Megan because they knew about the cloning process. And because Megan is trapped, she will die and so will everyone else and it's all because of my braces and ALEXANDER CORELL! Oh and also, what about me and Steven? We survive to tell the tale of misery? No way. I will not let this happen to me and Steven to get punished. I didn't want to have to save the guys. I wasn't even sure where they were without my gear. I was perplexed at the fact that I was like a secret agent the night before but now I'm just a... I stopped crying when I felt a piercing pain in my side. I reached into my lower pocket and retrieved a pair of those spy glasses and my trusty watch that I thought got lost! I put on the glasses and watch and Then took them off at the sighting of the distance of the drop. It was perfect! All I had to do was slowly walk down, and I'd be living in a movie! And as I took the first step, I began to feel the secret agent feeling. Like I was one of them. Part of them. More spiritual stuff. All ridiculous thoughts popped up like, "Marry Hillary!" and at that, I slipped and fell down the hill, hurting my back, but gaining confidence. I was "cool" because I was falling. But it hurt a lot. When my head hit the ground gently I knew that it was the bottom of the hill. I quickly thrust myself onto my feet and began to run with my gear. I tapped my watch to see if it worked again, and sparks shot out of it and attached to my braces making me jump. A foggy picture came up on the screen that showed a man pulling a lever. I got scared to see Megan sitting in one of the chairs hoisted up to the ceiling in the flooded warehouse. I wanted so badly to locate them.  
  
JOHN H. GIERRA  
  
I spotted out five signals of civilization. A fence, a hat, a car, a bench, and a trash can. That was all I found, not including that my friends Steven and Julie found me running out of the school and had chased me down the hill when I fell. They came running down in their baggy jeans while I wore my long jeans from that hideaway. I always wore the weather. If it was hot, I wore shorts. But my shorts were always below my knees and very long. I used to trip on them.  
  
Julie, the tomboy that she was, was wearing a black shirt and very long brown pants. She also, which freaked me out, dyed her hair black. "Hey guys!" I said, surprised. "Uh, yah, man. We followed you," getting the result of being hit in the face by Steven. "What she means is, she loves you, man." Steven laughed, with a result of being pushed onto his stomach by Julie. "I do not!" She yelled. I just looked at them innocently. "You guys, I need help," breaking up the fight.  
It was later that I realized that we needed a convincing story to tell our teachers. "How bout we say that we all died?" I suggested. "If we were dead, how would we be able to tell them?" Steven said. "Point proven,". I looked around, changing the subject by saying, "Oh look, a sign!" loudly. Everyone looked and saw the sign. It was wedged beneath 2 large rocks and hardly visible. I saw it. It read, "John H. Gierra." I walked over to it and there it was, an entrance. A secret entrance. A hidden entrance. I ran into the area and turned to signal to Julie and Steven. They were gone. I was about to worry when the ground opened up and I fell into a deep dark room. I hit my back on a table and cracked it in half. Then, I looked for a light switch and found something cold. I shot back, terrified. The goop from the object slimed all over my hand. I felt something mushy, and I wiped my hand on the wall. Next to my hand, I found a light switch and flipped it on. A light shined into my eyes, and I peered at what had got all over my hands. It was a dead bleeding body! I screamed and turned around to see Julie and Steven. I sighed when I realized who they were. "Oh it's just you guys,". "I'm warning you, Alex. Do not go into that room. It's full of evil. Curses of wicked demons. Spirits." Steven gulped. Julie was standing next to him, hugging him, shaking with fear. "I saw a monster in there," in a cold voice. I stopped and backed up against the wall in fear. They both went against the wall next to me. "We're almost in 3rd grade and we're gonna' die." Steven gasped. "Last night was my birthday, and I'm gonna' die too,".  
  
"I just have to admit something. Alex..." I waited to hear. "I was the one who stole your project for the book report,". "That was you?" I asked. "Yes" she said. I sighed. I decided to take a look into the "haunted" room and see. I found a light switch and flipped it on. The light really helped. It was so bright that it could beat the sun if they had a contest! I looked around and saw nothing. "Guys, this isn't haunted,". Then I yelled, "John Gierra, you here?" "Yes." I heard a startling voice say. It was coming from the back room! An old man popped his head out from the doorway and almost made me jump! "Gave you kids a startle, Ay?" the old man said. I said, "Where are we, anyway?" and he said, "Under the ground and into my secret hidout." I looked around. "Not much of a hideout." "Yah. I wouldn't think so," I said. "Got some friends with ya'?" he asked, looking over Steven and Julie. "Yah. I do." I paused. "What brought us here?" "Well," he began, "I think it's the right time to have someone test my inventions." He was completely off subject. I was anxious to try them out, though. But, I couldn't. The man lead us back into a hidden wall and down into a dungeon full of cobwebs. The stairs were all wet and curved. John was holding a lantern in front of him. "This is where I keep my things." He mumbled to us. The staircase got darker. The room was cold and misty and we had trouble breathing as it got humid. It got darker. And spookier. And we finally reached the bottom of the winding staircase. Not that it was a room, but indeed a dungeon, one of those in which Dracula might live in. It was huge and looked like a basement of a castle. Walls made of stone, lanterns on the walls. Fire in the lanterns. I couldn't even SEE the ceiling...The floors were creepy and had stains of something on them...Blood? John guided us down the hallway, which looked about the same as that room, but shorter and skinnier. It also got increasingly humid each step we took. I grabbed onto Julie's shoulder and she hit me in the stomach. The air was moist and hot, and John looked nervous. "It's not supposed to be this hot," he gulped, "so someone must have turned on the heat!" We all heard a terrifying laugh from the other room and footsteps. Someone had broken into John Gierra's hideaway and turned on the heat! Someone evil. But he was gone now, and despite the fear we felt, we continued walking. "There's a way out of here if we continue to walk." John said, gasping for air. I took off my backpack and dragged it with me. It was getting hotter and we were dehydrating. There was no light in that place! It got spookier and I felt cobwebs hit my face. I was about to scream, but instead I sighed and wiped it out of my face. We kept walking and losing air. It was cramped in there and I could not believe that John actually lived down here. Suddenly, I saw light! "And here we are!" John said. We stepped onto a dirt road. The sky was grey and I was sad to know that it was almost over for my cousins...And my birthday. Then I noticed that we were suddenly above ground and on a mountain. What the heck? "It's a setup!" I yelled. "John Gierra is a setup!" "No he isn't,".  
Just then, John Gierra said, "I can't take it anymore!" and ran off the cliff. His body looked as if it were being stretched. I watched in fright as he fell even farther! His arms spread out and he started to scream. I yelled, "Julie, take your ribbon out of your hair, quick!" and she handed it to me. Then I said, "Steven, hold onto my legs and jump!" "No!" he yelled. But, I ran and jumped off after John Gierra. Steven got pulled down too. Then Julie. We all started falling, but I grabbed onto a rock sticking out and saved us. I held on tight. The two friends of mine started to turn angry. "Let go, I'm going to let go." Julie yelled. "I am!" "No!" I yelled. "Don't! Stay!" "I'm letting go." Julie yelled again. "No." Steven yelled at her. "I will!" "Don't!" But she let go. In a sad and traumatizing fall, our dear friend fell. And John Gierra, he landed in the ocean, and we saw that he was okay. But Steven and I were still hanging off that cliff, staring at Julie, dead and sprawled out on a rock. Immediately, Steven started crying. "I didn't want her to die. You should have let me die." He cried. I didn't say anything, afraid that if I made the slightest move, I'd fall also. I had no clue of what to do. I was hungry and I was tired. And that's when I noticed Julie. She was dead, right? I didn't know yet, but I somehow hoisted myself and Steven onto the top again and found a pathway down to the area in which Julie fell in. I walked over to Julie and stared at her. "I thought of something, Steven,". "Doesn't she have parents?" "No. Just a dad,". "Well, what's her last name?" I asked. "Corler...No...Carl...no...Corell?" He stuttered. "A murderer's daughter. Well...Our bad guy's daughter is dead." I moaned. I shook my head. "Now he'll kill me. Julie Corell...UH!" I shrieked. "I liked her. I really did." Steven moaned. "Me too." I whispered. I walked up to her and spread a mini cross from my pocket across her chest. "She'll always be with us." I whispered. "So, what do you want to do now?" Steven yelled. "Leave the area. We don't want anyone to find us,". I looked at Steven and covered his mouth. "And try to keep it not loud." I whispered. We crouched down on our hands and knees and crawled over to a boulder. "We're hidden," to himself. Like he didn't know I was there! Anyway, I reached into my backpack-it had been smudged with mud-and pulled out my watch. It sparked out a green light and made the sound of an old radio between stations. I whacked at the screen and a dim picture was shown. "What?" Megan said on the other end. The picture faded out, so we could only here sound. "Alex? You there?" I heard her say. "It's working!" Steven screamed in my ear. "Yes. I know, Steven." I moaned. I changed tones to talk to Meg. "Yes I am." I told her. I tapped the screen and a picture showed up again. I heard Meg scream in happiness. Someone in the background asked Megan, "What's up?" and Megan said, "Alex's on again." And more screaming stuff, this time with more people including Aaron. "Guess what?" Megan said. "Alexander Corell let us free to the dining table for our 'last' meal...Or so he thinks..." Megan told us. "He drained out that water that was rising, and now he's gone to set something up.. I donno'...Some torture thing."  
I shook my head.  
"What a pervert,". The sound went muffled as she began to talk about something else. I couldn't understand. Then, as the sound came back on again, she said, "...John Gierra. He did it to us."  
"He did what?" I asked. "He was the one who made it seem like we blew up...At the meeting! 'member that? The catsup? The robot carcasses?" "I know,".  
"Well," she began, "Heard of him?" "Yes. I see him now." And I froze. Looking at me was the fat, bearded, tan John Gierra, with his eyes at mine. "Bye Meg." I whined, staring at the man approaching us. I shoved the watched into my backpack and stood up. "Hey kiddies...F'get me?" He mumbled. Smiling, he pulled out a gun and shot at the air. "Forty more of those..." he laughed.  
"What happened to you?" I said, pointing to his head, which was bleeding. "What?" he said.  
"He's gone mad!" I yelled, grabbing Steven's hand and running. Gierra started firing wildly as we escaped. He then fell to the ground dead. He had shot himself in the head.  
  
IF THAT'S WHAT IT TAKES, I'VE GOT WHAT IT TAKES.  
  
I remember my hair, the black styling jell had already worn out and I was forest fire again. I was still wearing my zigzag blue shirt and my jeans, which I now noticed were very long and overlapping my shoes. I weighed 69 pounds, and was 4 foot, 45 in. I had, and still have, light skin and freckles. I have blue eyes. And I have nothing wrong with me. I'm just an average kid. Steven has tan skin, no freckles, green eyes, black hair, he weighs 67 pounds and is 4 foot, 44 in. He was 7 ½ and I was 8 years old. Julie was 8 and she only weighed 63 pounds. Now that she died, there's no skinny one anymore. But anyway, I turned 8 the night before this one. The bump on my head made me think different. I feel older. Plus...It was night once again, and I still hadn't found Megan yet. I was worried. I was in California, near where I live, and where Steven lived.  
"Let's go to my house." And when I said MY house, I meant MY house. Not Megan's. We entered my house and I sat in my living room chair. "Now life will be normal. Just wait for...Megan!" I remembered Megan! She was being taken somewhere with those other people! Those...Those...Spies? No. It was a lie. We are not spies. It's a fake. We are not spies! We're kids in danger! And we can't stand up to mom and dad! "My mom and dad our behind this all,". "They are evil. Like Julie's dad." "No," Steven yelled in horror, "No!" I looked at him and shook my head yes. It was true. Unless THEY were the ones who wanted...Oh no. Wait...Wait...Oh my god...The crystal! They took Aaron for the crystal he had! But why take him too? Well, I had no idea. I went into a flashback to find out. WAY back.  
August 17, 2000- I was almost eight. It was 2 weeks before my birthday. I was sitting in my house and reading a book about Indiana Jones. It was full of pictures from the movie, and I saw this Sculpture thing that they called "The Idle" and my dad appeared in back of me. He said that there was an article in a newspaper about a person in our town that died. He said that when they checked the house, they found old articles from an 1800's newspaper that told about an ancient stone that was said to be very powerful and was the key to a secret world. He told me it was said to have been buried somewhere in THIS neighborhood and is valuable...Up to the price of 177,009,999, dollars or something. He said that if we found it, we could become very wealthy and...Laughing, he said that "we could open that secret door to the other world" Then he patted me on the back and walked into the kitchen. I then had put the book down, and walked over to the window. 'God' I thought, 'Help us.'  
"Steven...My dad took them for hostage so HE could get the credit for the stone and they couldn't stop him...Or call for help!" I yelled in shock. I turned white and fainted.  
Even when I was passed out, I was even more nervous. My parents took hairs from my head to clone me and had succeeded, even though I couldn't beleive it in a million years. My dad told me that cloning was impossible, although they cloned a sheep once. The fact that I had a clone was just amazing. But I din't seem to care. Nothing was really amazing to me at the moment. It was all just rediculous. I'm a kid, I should have been playing games with friends or going to school. Or...Not speeding things up! I am sorry that the long adventure we had had that night seemed so badly written...Sped up. One minute, I'm battling clones... And flying? And flipping? And falling? And not to mention crashing through glass? The reason that it all sounds ridiculous is that it's hard to explain it all in bigger and better sentances. Even if nothing ever tied up in a conlusion, it's life. Sometimes things don't happen like they should. And in any other book, when everything makes sense and everything ties up into one conclusion, this story lacs it. This is because this was my adventure. And I failed it. Forget anything I told you about being a spy. Take away the chapter about the flying and the falling. I sorta' over did that one. It was just to make things more fun. And that monster that pinned me and Megan to the wall...That sibirian mountain cyclops...FAKE! Otherwise, it's all true. The pinned to the wall theory was actually just some crazy guy who dragged us down under this hollow rock hut. Steven was just a friend who happened to be near the mountain wear I fell from. Stupid really...What a coincidence! Frankly, I took this out of my diary that I wrote when I was 8. That's why the grammar was stupid at the beginning. I am now 10 and I'm writing on my computer in a cold January. The sun is shining, but it's cold outside. 0 degrees. My mom is yelling at me to go out for lunch with my family.  
I'm back! It was cool! We went to this cool resturant that was decorated really weirdly. But something happened that was unbelievable...Here it goes!  
January 12 2003: At the table at which we were seated at, was placed a lamp. I couldn't see my sister at the other side of the table because the lamp shade was so big. In fact, I couldn't see anyone or anything on my sister's side of the table. I moved the lamp shade away and the whole lamp fell off the table and crashed on the floor. All of the lights in the resturant went off and everyone screamed. I didn't...Okay...Maybe just a little. Okay, I jumped too. A man who worked there came up to us and he wiped the glass off the floor. He shouted in pain a few times because the glass had cut him, but soon he walked off carrying the lamp. Of course, I didn't see that happen. The lights came back on, and I could see my sister again. The light was gone for good. We ordered food and ate and then we just sat there doing nothing at all but talk. Oh...And I scratched my ear. Still, all we did was talk. Mom, a 35 year old mom, talked about her day at work...She's a doctor. My dad didn't tell us anything about his day at work...He's a worker at a small resturant. He mostly only told us about the newspaper. My sister, a fifteen year old singer whose name is Mel talked about her music auditions. I talked about how if you stick a penny in your nose it hurts. Yes, that's a little bit of me for ya'. Simple. Not stupid, just very odd. My imaginary twin brother talked about the same thing. His name is Alek. I made him up when I was six. He haunts my thoughts. Always there!  
I seemed to wake up that moment. And it seemed that then, I was all clear in the head again. It was not my job to rescue prisoners. I myself was a prisinor of lost hope. I couldn't find the courage to go back to the beach...Why was I even there in the first place? Steven and I just stayed at my house trying to forget it all. My parents will be back soon...That is if they're still nice. Between you and me, I had no idea what to tell them to have them help me. It would be especially hard if they really did turn out to be mean. I mean, bad. They wouldn't kill their own son...Would they? I became worried. What if my parents killed me?  
I could call the cops. It's their job to help with murders. Not mine. I was stupid to dress like a secret agent and do spywork. I sucked at it! I couldn't save myself if my life depended on it! And soon my cousin will die. Her and the other spies in training. Why the heck to they have kids as spies? It's stupid! Why did I use a jetpack? I was so stupid that night. It couldn't have happened. Here's the rest of it...I know nothing about spies. AT ALL.  
I took off my shoes and Steven and I just layed back and worried about this adventure. Megan was 1000000 miles away from here now. In an old jail ( She had been removen from the warehouse the night that it started and sent into a prison) somewhere in somewhere. I laughed at myself. I was a thin little wimp. I needed food badly. Not to mention that Megan's mom is probably going crazy trying to find her. I pictured her calling the cops. I pictured my mom and dad coming into the house all worried. I pictured it all to be normal again. The way it was supposed to be. Normal life. Normal ways. Not this. I was supposed to have a gaurdian to watch me, but I didn't. Steven needed his parents. They were probably also going ballisctic. I turned around and faced Steven. "You need to go home,".  
"Yah." he moaned, stretching.  
"Or better yet, we need to go back to school and tell the teachers why we won't come in the morning,".  
"It's 9:04...9:05 now!" Steven said, staring at his watch.  
"We can see if maybe one of the teachers is still there."  
"Alex, that's a crazy idea. No teachers will be at the school." Steven yelled.  
"You're right. Well, we have to think of something. We have to get you home."  
"Bye.'' Steven said, walking away and out the door. I laid back in the chair and tried to erase the pain I had gone through. I felt the scars from our trip, and I noticed that I was not too healthy. My face had a few cuts on the side, and my head was throbbing with pain. I would fall asleep now.  
In the morning, I woke up to another day. Still, I thought of all the things I had to fix. I had to save my cousins and mom and dad. They had been cloned and that's why I thought they were evil. No. They were with Megan. In an old prison somewhere across the United States. Mom and dad weren't coming home. I had to go to Megan's house and tell her mom. And so I got up and stumbled to the door, turning the knob, opening to a beautiful day of blue sky and green grass. I stopped and breathed in the air.  
Knock. Knock. Knock. I waited. I heard footsteps. I gained my courage to brake the news, but I couldn't stand to see the look on her face. Couldn't stand to see her cry. I had to tell though, and that is what I did. The door opened. "Alex?" Meg's mom said, yawning and squinting at me through the sun rays in confusion. "I came to give you some bad news...But I don't know how to say it," and a tear formed in my eye. "Megan and Aaron are gone."  
  
END OF PART ONE


	2. PART TWO the end of the world is here

PART TWO.  
  
"What?" She asked, frowning. "She, she, she," I couldn't finish.  
And before I could finish, she began crying. I cried. I was scared and  
I had been holding it in this whole time. And to think that this was  
really happening made me cry even more. But then, I stopped. I took a  
deep breath. "She's gone!" I yelled again, crying.  
"And so am I," I added. "We were trying to find Aaron, because  
someone took him. He found a jewel, and I guess the person who took  
him was after the diamond, and all of the other treasures that he  
possesses." I couldn't continue, because Meg's mom was heading into  
the other room to call the police.  
She came to the door and asked me to come in. "Where do you  
think she is, Alex?" She asked me. "Well, on the tracker I found on my  
watch, it says she's moving. She's somewhere around 1 to 4000 miles  
away, I'm not sure, but maybe South of this state. She is being held  
hostage until they tell where the treasure is," I said. "I remember  
hearing a knock, and then the door opened and Aaron was completely  
gone," "Anything else?" Megan's mom asked me, hoping for more info.  
"Yes. The Golden treasure thing that Aaron had has a tracking system,  
and that's how the man found him and took him. He tracked him down."  
And I was finished. I had one more piece of info, but I didn't want to  
tell her. I wasn't sure it was even true. I sat in a nice big armchair  
and waited. She had headed into the other room to call some savy  
people persons. I waited, wiping my eyes, which had given my a  
headache because of the crying. I sat and walked in circles. She came  
back into the room and I felt weird because I had nothing to do about  
this. I couldn't just say, "Yah. I know. She's long gone." So I said,  
"Sorry. I tried," And gave her a hug. "They're going to look for  
Megan," She said through tears. I frowned. "Come here, I'll take you  
to school. You should have stayed here. I was home by 9:30 last night  
wondering what happened to you guys." "Okay," I said "but I didn't..."  
"I know..." She said. She took a deep breath and smiled. "I know,  
honey," She sniffled. Then, she went blank, staring at nothing.  
"They've got to find her," She sighed. Then, she turned and headed to  
the garage. "Come on, Alexander. Let's get you down to school," She  
said, closing the door as she tried to yell something else. The door  
closed and she was muffled in sound. I smiled a smile and then sucked  
on my teeth because the braces hurt my teeth. I started to the garage,  
remembering that I'm the "cool spy" 8 year old.  
"Hillary. OH NO! I forgot about her!" I yelled in the car, the  
1987 rusty van car that my aunt drove. "Who?" My aunt yelled in  
confusion, adjusting the car mirrors. "Some punk in my class," I  
mumbled. She was about to say something back, but we pulled up to the  
school that second. "Here we are!" She yelled. "Yes," I said,  
grimacing. "I know."  
I ran down the hallway and jumped over a chair and stubbed my  
toe and fell on my face, scuffing my hands. "OW!" I yelled, curling up  
in pain. Hillary came walking up to me. "It's baby Alex crying. Look  
at you!" she yelled, laughing. Then, she lifted her foot and stomped  
on my stomach! I couldn't breath! Oh no! I was dying! I felt the pain  
on the inside and couldn't breath even if I tried. "What? Going  
swimming? Drowning? Oh no. Poor Alex is DYING!" She screeched. I  
couldn't believe it, but She kicked me in the face!. I held my mouth  
and screamed in pain as she began to lift her leg again, but I kicked  
her other leg and she fell onto her back and hit her head on the  
floor. I continued to moan and curl up against the wall. Hillary stood  
up, about to cry, and tried to throw a punch, but she hit me with her  
fist and I grabbed it. And with it, I twisted her arm and she started  
crying. Then, she kicked me in the kneecap. "Ow!" I screamed, falling  
to the ground. "That hurt a lot!" I screamed. "What's your problem to  
hurt me like that? You hardly even know me!" "You twisted my arm!" She  
cried. "We're even!" I screamed. A teacher finally came stomping down  
the hallway. He grabbed us by our arms. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" He  
yelled. Then, he stared at my face. "You're bleeding," He said,  
looking worried. "I am?" I panicked. "It's okay! You're fine, go to  
the nurse and get an ice pack," He said, trying to comfort me. Then,  
he looked at Hillary and asked, "What is it with you two? Fighting? We  
don't allow fighting in this school," Was all I heard him say, because  
I turned a corner in the hall. I was walking my way down that very  
hall that I heard a man shouting and a gun shot outside. My heart was  
beating so fast! I fell to the ground in shock as I heard classes of  
kids screaming in fright as they realized what had happened. The  
school was in panic. I stood up and ran to the office, but the nurse  
wasn't there! I rushed to the bathroom and washed my face off and  
stuck toilet paper in my nose to stop it from bleeding too much. When  
I looked up at myself in the mirror, I heard our principal over the  
announcement speaker say, "Attention all students! Please remain calm,  
it seems an insane asylum patient is loose. We are safe inside the  
school, but recess will be held in students' classrooms. Thank you." I  
looked at myself in the mirror and laughed, knowing that the principal  
had just warned us of something terrifying and made it seem as if it  
was just a happy matter, like if a butterfly got loose or something.  
But no. A crazy person. A killer. I ran into the hallway and peered  
out the window...Nothing. 2 police cars. No conflict. Where was he? It  
hit me. In the school? IN THE SCHOOL.  
I ran to class and sat at my desk. "You're 12 minutes late!  
Start your morning work!" Shouted my teacher to me. "Sorry," I moaned,  
looking at my HARD work I had to do. Addition and Subtraction double  
digit. 4450, 2590, 3743, 88108. 108!?! ONE HUNDRED EIGHT? That's  
not double digit, its googolplex digit! Too hard!  
  
THE ESCAPED CONVICT  
  
15 minutes later, another announcement from the speaker, "Please,"  
principal said in a whisper. "seek shelter. Conflict has found himself  
inside the school. Remain calm and seek shelter IMMEDIATELY!" I felt  
my heart speed up and I began to shiver in fear. Some girls were  
crying together, but we all hid in the security closet that is  
secretly hidden behind a wall in the back room. It is small, and it is  
padded, so it will muffle the sound inside. We all squished in there  
and some kids were crying. I wasn't. I was shivering and pressing my  
back against the padded wall. We shut the light off and sat there for  
40 minutes, which is pretty long for a criminal to look around our  
tiny school. Like any other criminal, he'd probably give up if he  
thought nobody was there. "I gotta pee!" Yelled a boy nearest to the  
door. 'Course I couldn't see him in the darkness.  
"Well, um..." My teacher began, but stopped, because he couldn't  
think of anything to say. He said in a question, "You could use that  
bathroom across from here?" which didn't make sense because that isn't  
a yes or no question the way he said it. "Be careful," My teacher  
said, opening the door for the boy. As the boy stepped out into the  
light, I saw that it was Billy, the kid who drank A LOT of water. It  
was normal for him to have to go that bad. Billy said, "I will be  
careful."  
The door slowly shut, and my teacher took a breath in and out.  
It was minutes later that Hillary said, "Guess what?" and turned  
to me. I was urging to hear this secret of hers. "What?" I asked,  
leaning towards her in excitement. "Chicken butt!" She yelled in my  
ear, a totally in-appropriate thing to do at that moment. I rolled my  
eyes as Hillary laughed at me. I mean LAUGH when I say that. She was  
laughing so hard, the crazy dude could have just found us like that! I  
wanted to punch her in the nose, but a part of me held me down. "You  
will find a companion in this child," My other part told me. "The girl  
who punched me in the face agajillian times? Nu-uh!" I told myself. I  
guess I out-smarted him because he didn't say anything back to me from  
then on.  
Billy came back, swallowing the last bit of water he had drank.  
He closed the door and sat down, wiping his mouth.  
About 10 minutes later, our teacher opened up the padded door  
and then shut it behind him. Then, he remembered that we were in the  
security closet and opened up the door again. But, he stuck his head  
in and said, "I'm going to go check everything, okay?" instead of  
letting us out. "STAY HERE AT ALL TIMES, NO MATTER WHAT!" he added in  
a fierce tone, and then he shut the door, leaving us alone. "Butt-  
head!" Marcus Millegar giggled, punching Gilroy Dawson in the  
shoulder. Gil just giggled, and pushed Marcus into the wall, making a  
loud bumping sound. "Guys! Be quiet!" I whisper-yelled. "Yah, guys!"  
Bobby S. yelled in agreement. "Shush!" I whispered, after Gil pushed  
Marcus's head into the wall again. "Shush, crush, mush, lush, gush,  
fush, rush, push, wush, nush, bush, tush!" Hillary said in an annoying  
tune. "Hillary!" I yelled, hoping the lips of this girl would close.  
Unfortunately, they didn't. "Pillary, Killary, Millary, Sillary,  
Gillary, Shmillary! I can rhyme, you know," She admired herself.  
"Uh...Yeah! Ha...Uh...You're good at it too!" I said, lying. We all  
broke out into a talking fit. "If the madman still is here, I'd be  
amazed if he didn't kill us all," I moaned, not talking to anyone,  
really.  
"Hey," said Hillary, "you're gay!"  
She was talking to me...Of course. I ignored her. "YOU!" She  
yelled, punching me in the side and giggling.  
"What?" I yelled in frustration.  
She thought for a moment, smiled, and said, "Hi."  
Hi. She hurt me so she could say hi? I once again ignored her.  
She sat against the wall and said, "I'm cool," and then, she giggled  
her high pitched giggle that sounded like it was exactly the same as  
her last giggle. It was. She repeated it exactly the same way every  
time, so it sounded like it was on a tape recorder, playing over and  
over every time she thought something was funny.  
Gil never laughed. He was always serious. He is American, and he  
has brown hair. He looks very average, like an everyday "BOY". He is  
pretty tall, and I'm guessing 60 something pounds or higher. He has  
nice white teeth, a mature, everyday boy face, Green eyes, and an  
opened mouth. He came to school in 1st grade and was in my class, and  
was sort of my friend. He was nice, too. One day, I had no lunch and  
he so generously gave me something from his lunch. Then, over summer  
vacation, he had become a sports fiend. All he wanted to do was talk  
about football. I wanted to talk about funny things and about TV shows  
I liked, and stuff like that. Everything we talked about, he always  
turned it into a conversation about football. "I don't really like  
football that much," I'd say, and he'd make fun of me. Anyway, I enjoy  
jumping on the trampoline or playing fun things over playing a sport,  
because I am not good at sports, and sports don't interest me, but at  
this moment in the closet, Gil said, "Whoever likes football is cool!"  
and I heard everyone scream with enjoyment. "SHUT UP!" I yelled. Then,  
I whispered, "If you are too loud, the lunatic will be able to find  
us! So shhh!" I had shut them up. For now. I was just waiting anytime  
now for the maniac to poke his head in the closet and see us. I could  
imaging if we were all a Jewish family hiding in the wall from nazis,  
and they all start screaming, so we would become dead men. The nazis  
would find us. That's why they would never stand a chance back then.  
The teacher never did come back. We had sat there for 40 minutes  
waiting, but he never came back. NEVER.  
"Should we open the door and see where he went?" Gil suggested.  
"Uh...Yah. That seems okay. I mean, what would a maniac do in a  
small school? He would have left already," I said, opening the door  
and leading everyone out. It was 1:27...1:28, and it was thundering  
outside. "Go figure. A maniac and a thunderstorm together? What next,  
a walking, talking skeleton in the broom closet?" Hillary said  
sarcastically. Her friends giggled. We all walked out slowly and sort  
of crouching down, just in case. I was leading the way. I was scared.  
The school's power was out, and I laughed, "And the power's out.  
Perfect."  
It was scary because I kept hearing running, or noises from the  
other room. I thought I saw a shadow, but no. Nobody was at the school  
upstairs, and nor the 1st floor, so we checked the basement. "I'm  
scared," Said someone behind me. The basement was pitch black and  
cold. There were classes down here, like Music, Art, Library,  
Computers, and some regular classes. Now, we couldn't see anything. I  
remembered I had my watch on my wrist, and the watch could light up. I  
turned on the light and shined it in front of me. I gained bravery and  
yelled, "Hello? Anyone?" and my echoes were followed by the noise of  
footsteps in the background. "Who are you? Where are you?" I yelled,  
followed by whoever it was's cluttering footsteps. I back up into  
Bobby S., and he pushed me forward. "We know you're in here!" Hillary  
yelled.  
Everyone started talking and complaining. That's when I heard a  
groan. It sounded like a man groaning, and it sounded close, in the  
library. I heard the groan again, this time it was louder! My back was  
full of goose-bumps, and my body was shivering. I pushed open the  
library door and heard the moan again. "Who's there?" Gilroy asked,  
stepping in front of me. I shined my flashlight into the room and  
looked around. I saw nothing.  
I heard a terrifying sound. The girls were crying and screaming,  
"Look over there!" they pointed over in the back of the Library to the  
corner, and in horror, stared over at a man curled up in the corner  
crying and moaning. I only saw it as a shadowy figure, until lightning  
struck outside and I saw his face. We all practically fell over when  
we saw him laying there, all sprawled out and twisted up. The sight  
was scary and terrible, being that it was indeed the maniac. "Mr.  
Maniac sir, don't kill me. My name is Toby and I come in peace," Said  
Toby, a small kid with black hair. The mental patient looked up and  
sneered at him, then rested his head in his hands. He looked up at us  
again and I could only see his glowing eyeballs as the lightning hit  
the sky. I fell back in shock, heading towards the door so we could  
run away, but the lunatic said, "Wait," in a raspy, chilling voice. "I  
want to see your face." He was talking to me. I shot my head in his  
direction and stared at the creepy glowing eyeballs. "Um...Okay," I  
said, sounding very scared. I slowly walked over to him step by step.  
"Closer," He said. I kept on walking. "Closer!" He said, this time he  
sort of yelled it. I kept my distance from him, afraid he may harm me.  
"Dammit! Closer! Get the hell over here!" He yelled, sounding very  
ignorant. I walked up to beside his feet, and he laughed a horrible  
laugh. I saw his face. The face that will haunt me forever. The beaten  
up, bloody, horrifying face of Alexander Corell. I shot back in fear  
and in anger. "Aghh!" I choked out, stumbling over a chair and hitting  
my head on the floor. My eyes grew wide at this terrifying face that  
was staring madly at me. "Get over here, Alex. I have your mommy. And  
your daddy. And your cousins. Now where's the jewel, boy?" He shouted,  
in a deep voice. He looked dead just lying there limply and twisted in  
the corner, and I didn't want him to get onto his feet.  
"I don't have it," I tried to sound calm. "Don't play games with  
me, Alex! I know Aaron gave it to you! HAND IT OVER, CHILD!" he  
yelled, rattling the floor. I stepped up to him, staring him in the  
blood-shot eyes. "I...," I began to sarcastically slow down my sentence,  
"...Don't.....Have....It!" I finished, crossing my arms with pride in my  
sarcasm. But, it was a mistake to do that, because I saw that madman  
get to his feet and start walking towards me. "I don't have it now,  
don't touch me!" I yelled, walking backwards away from him and towards  
my classmates. "Give!" Alexander Corell yelled, jumping at me and  
pinning me to the ground. I let out a huge gasp as he pushed his elbow  
into my stomach. I couldn't breath! "NOW!" he grunted, pushing into my  
stomach again. I knew I'd have to lie to him, because the only other  
choice besides that would be to have him kill me right then and there.  
"It's at my house in the cabinet above the dishwasher," I choked out.  
It worked. He released his arm and stood over me. "You should have  
thought twice about that," he laughed, running out the basement door  
and up a flight of stairs outside. All of my classmates came over to  
me and surrounded me as I went unconscious.  
When I woke up, police cars and ambulances were outside and it  
was dark outside. My vision was blurry, and it took me a while to  
realize that I was still in the basement, and Policemen and doctors  
were hovering over me, looking down at me. I stood up and started  
breathing. "What happened?" I yelled. "Calm down! You were knocked  
unconscious and you weren't breathing," Said the doctor. I sat down on  
the floor and felt my stomach. It was throbbing with pain, and when I  
touched it, I could feel a bruise. "So...What happened?" I said, not  
remembering. "Well," said a doctor, "It seems that the escaped convict  
was in the basement and you...You..." she searched her clipboard, "You  
were beat in the stomach by his elbow, and you lost air...So you fell  
unconscious." She paused for a second, looked up at a policeman and  
then down at me again and said, "Do you remember what this person  
looked like, or where he escaped to?"  
"Yes I do. His name is Alexander Corell. He escaped through that  
door," I pointed to the basement door, "and he was headed for my  
house."  
"Do you know...ANYTHING...about this man?" she asked, picking up her  
clipboard and pencil. "Yes. He is a crazy person, he kidnapped my  
cousins, he is after some Jewel to the Lost City which I think they  
must have had," I said, pausing. Then I thought, 'Did Aaron hide the  
Jewel anywhere? If so, he probably won't find it' and I smiled. "But  
he's not going to find it," I added, looking at the policeman.  
  
THE RUNAWAY ALEX  
  
After they let me go, I ran to my house, where I found out that  
he had looked in the cabinet above the dishwasher but hadn't found  
anything. He had just broken some orange juice glass. I rushed into  
the Living room and turned on the TV. I had watched 3 episodes of All  
That in the All That marathon on Nickelodeon. I had liked to see  
something funny after what had happened that day. Then, I turned it  
off because it was some stupid boring adult show on, and I ran to the  
window to look for...Just to check to see if any...You know, bad guys were  
there. There weren't any, so I ran outside and to Megan's house, where  
I waited for her mom to come back from the police station. She had  
gone there twice, seeing if they could search for Megan and Aaron. I  
wanted to find them. It wasn't my job, but I just wanted to do  
something extraordinary one time. I remembered my watch again, the one  
with the built in TV and camera so me and Megan could communicate. I  
pushed the ON button, and the watch light up for a split second. I  
pushed it again. "Hello?" I said into it. Static sounds from the other  
end. "Hello," I heard from the other end.  
"This is Alex," I said. It was Meg on the other line. She  
laughed. "Hi!" She said. I heard her scream. "Where are you?" I asked.  
"I don't know! He has us in a cell in the basement," She  
whispered, sounding sad. I wondered what it was like. "What has he  
done to you guys?" I asked. "Nothing too serious yet. He is trying  
everything to have us tell him where the jewel thingy is. Did you know  
anything about this?" She asked me. "Yes. I told him it was at my  
house. Do you know where it really is?" I said.  
"Yah hold on a sec'.....Aaron! Where did you put the jewel  
thing?.......Okay......Um, Alex, HE has it," Megan said.  
I felt horrible. Now what? Aaron has it with him! "Um, okay...Do  
you think that you could possibly tell me where you are? That way I  
could come to you guys there. Just don't let any of the people have  
the jewel. HIDE it!" Megan interrupted me, "We're in a cage hanging  
over the dining room table way below us. There are other rows of  
cages, except they have skeletons inside them. We have nowhere to hide  
it. They let us out once and a while, just so we could have to help  
them dig for the lock that opens to the other world (or so they say).  
That's why we can't give them the key. That key is very important to  
them. If we just show them it, they would know we've been holding out  
on them, and kill us!"  
"What's the place you're in look like?" I asked. Megan said, "It  
looks like a big moving base. It's very high-tech, and very hard to  
understand. Um...We're about 30 or 40 feet above the table, and there is  
a lever that they pull that makes us go down when they want us to  
work. Right now, we're stopped because they think they have found the  
lock, and the navigator doesn't even detect it, so I'm guessing it's  
nowhere around here. I'll use MY navigator to see where we are, if  
it's working now...It is! And we're in...Texas. No wonder it feels so  
dry!" I heard beeping. Megan cut in, "Um, the base just started moving  
again. THE NAVIGATOR HAS PICKED UP A SIGNAL OF THE LOCK! Someone's  
coming! Talk to you later B...." The sound cut off. Angry, I shut my  
watch off and sat down on a couch, waiting for Megan's mom to get  
home. I thought I could never see them again.  
I agreed to myself that I wouldn't tell Megan's mom. I just  
couldn't stand up to say that to her.  
It was way later that I heard the door open and shut. "Alex? You  
here?" Megan's mom shouted. "Yes," I yelled back. She came into the  
room holding some bags of groceries and set them on the table  
uneasily. I came and leaned against the table.  
She still looked teary eyed. "You're parents are coming home one  
of these days," She said, putting away the fruits. "Yah," I said,  
hoping it was soon enough.  
It was later that I decided to start thinking harder. I had to  
think SO hard, that I could try and figure out how to get to Megan. I  
couldn't just walk up to my aunt and say, "Drive me to Texas," And  
have her say, "Sure golly gee I will!" and hop into the van.  
At dinner, which was at 9:03, because it was late, I went  
straight to bed, and I had to sleep in Megan's room on a blow up  
mattress. I fell asleep at 10:00, and woke up at 6:15. I didn't have a  
very good sleep. I kept hearing some odd noises from outside. They  
kept me awake most of the night, around twelve, and I fell asleep  
finally after the noise shut off, which was at 2:00. I woke up looking  
rather droopy and clumsy, and I slapped myself until I completely woke  
up, then dunked my head in the sink. Then, stared up into the light,  
which worked a lot.  
At school, like any other day, we continued our dream houses,  
and mine looked awful. I'm usually an okay artist, but when it comes  
to houses, I am horrible. Everyone else's house looked pretty good,  
but mine had eraser marks and smudged pencil, and scribbles that had  
been barely erased. Mine had a really cool kitchen, that had buttons  
that made electric arms come out and do the dishes for you. And then,  
a dummy with robotic arms would come out and pour me a glass of soda  
and actually PUT away the bottle at the end! And plus, the table came  
with windshield wipers so you don't have to clean the table. And to  
move around the house, you don't have to walk around, just ride in a  
small golf cart and activate everything from there. I called this  
house the blob house because that's what one would become after having  
no exercise whatsoever. I also didn't color it in. At the end, we had  
to present our houses to the class, and I told them about the kitchen  
and Gil said it was sort of like the kitchen that Peewee had in that  
Peewee movie. I said that that was what gave me the idea.  
In science, we were learning about electricity. We had to make a  
small light-bulb light up, and whenever I lifted the two wires up and  
put them to my braces, some force of electricity would pull towards my  
braces and shock my mouth. I lit the light-bulb, and that gave me an  
idea to try to start my watch this way. I pulled out my watch and  
pried it open so I could reach the inside. I touched the wire from the  
active battery and to the watch, somewhere inside, and a small glow of  
red light appeared and disappeared. The watch's battery was given a  
jolt, and absorbed the energy from the battery we were experimenting  
with. Then, I closed up the watch and put it back on my wrist. I  
turned it on, and a sign ran across the screen saying, "Other end is  
not currently on."  
That meant that Megan didn't have the watch turned on. I pushed  
the signal button, which is supposed to signal her to turn it on.  
Nothing.  
After school, I invited Steven to come over and play. We  
discussed how to not tell a soul that we may have been the cause of  
Julie's death. He promised, and we also decided to not tell ANYONE  
that we were there to witness, but instead decided to tell Julie's  
great aunt that we had heard that Julie was missing. That way, we  
could get the "news" out before she finds out for herself!  
We'd have to be brave and trustworthy.  
We rode our scooters down to her great aunt's house and dropped  
the scooters on the lawn. We ran up the stairs and onto the porch,  
knocking on the door. It opened!  
An old, short woman stood in the doorway, looking sort of  
confused.  
"You go to Julie's school?" she asked, scratching her white  
hair.  
"Yah," I said, "I'm Alex. I'm one of her fr..." I began to say friends,  
but stopped, thinking that she might become suspicious. Instead, I  
finished with, "classmates."  
The old woman nodded, still looking worried. "Have you seen her  
'round the school, have you now?" she said, sounding very dry. I  
wanted Steven to talk now.  
Steven said, "No." and then paused.  
"Well then, when last did ya' last see her , now?" the old woman  
spoke, looking at Steven.  
"A few days ago, maybe," He said, shrugging his shoulders. I could see  
inside the woman's house. It was dry and musty, and very old  
fashioned, with old 40's and 30's furniture.  
"Well, then she must be missin' there huh?" the woman laughed,  
turning around to go back inside.  
"Wait," I shouted. She turned back around, and stood in the doorway  
again.  
"I think she's been kidnapped," Steven said loudly. I looked at him  
with a stern face.  
"Go head, lay it on the poor old woman!" I whispered, clenching my  
teeth. I turned to the old woman and she looked like she had seen  
someone get run over by a steamroller run by a madman who had plotted  
revenge on the man he had flattened. She opened her eyes wide, which  
looked disturbingly creepy, and studied our faces.  
"Do you find this funny, gentlemen? Do you think it'll amuse me? Have  
you no manners?" she said loudly, grabbing onto the door. The door  
slammed shut in our faces and I nearly fell backwards. Then, Steven  
and I ran quickly away from the cob-webbed old house and hid behind  
the trash cans she had put out there long ago for people to take her  
stuff. She had had an auction years ago, and put some of her 40's hats  
up for sale. Nobody bought them, so she threw them away. She was a  
very odd woman, very old, very eerie. And she talked funny.  
By the time we reached my house, Steven's mom called. I answered  
it, and said, "Hello?"  
"Hi, is Steven there? He needs to go home, okay? We're having  
dinner soon, and I don't want him to miss it," Steven's mom said. I  
looked at the clock. It was 6:15. I told Steven, who was leaning  
against the dishwasher, that he had to go home, and he popped out the  
door. "He's coming!" I said, and hung up the phone. As it began to get  
dark, I ran to Megan's mom's house and waited for her to get home.  
This became a daily schedule. When she didn't come home, I slipped on  
my shoes and ran outside. It was black outside, and I felt like at any  
moment, a killer would pop out at me and kill me. I ran across the  
street and looked around. It was cold outside, and I could hear  
chirping of crickets and see stars in the night sky shimmering down on  
me. I hardly recognized the surroundings at night.  
Once I felt it was okay, I ran down the sidewalk and through a  
dark tunnel which I had passed under earlier while walking to my  
aunt's house. Now it looked scary, and I was afraid someone was  
waiting for me at the end of the tunnel. Waiting. Waiting to kill me.  
I ran the speed of light through the tunnel, but then stopped as I  
neared the end. I stopped, took a breath or two, and leaned against  
the tunnel wall. I stared up at the end of the tunnel, which was 12  
feet away from me, calling for me to cross. I didn't know why I was  
running, or where. I continued running, getting more anxious about the  
end of the tunnel. I stopped again, 4 feet away from the end. I  
panted, out of breath, and looked around at my surrounding.  
It was terribly dark, very dim light peering through the exit to the  
tunnel, casting eerie shadows. I ran, passing through the end of the  
tunnel, but something stopped me.  
A hand had grabbed by shoulder and pulled me back, off to the side of  
the tunnel, and pushed me into the wall. I groaned in fear, trying to  
pull away, but the figure held me up high by the shirt, and over his  
head, slamming me into the outside of the tunnel. "Give me your money,  
kid!" the figure said, in a deep, man's voice.  
"I don't have any money!" I yelled, choking, as he held me up by  
my shirt. He laughed, and let me onto the ground. I began to walk  
away, but, he pulled out a knife and grasped me by the chest, putting  
the knife up to my neck.  
"Ow!" I cried, noticing the blade under my chin.  
"Give...Me...The...MONEY!" He yelled, splitting out the words as if I hadn't  
understood him the first time. "I...Don't...Have...Any...MONEY!" I yelled,  
mocking his tone. "Don't play games, kid! I'm warning you! I have a  
knife!" he yelled, furious.  
"Think fast!" I yelled, elbowing him in the stomach. He let go of the  
knife and stumbled back a few feet. I ran and did a jumping kick at  
him, and kicked him in the chest.  
He fell to the ground, and I jumped on his pain-filled body, punching  
him in the face. I continued punching him in the face until his nose  
got bloody, then punched him again, knocking him unconscious. I felt  
scared that he'd wake up and kill me, so I ran so fast away from him,  
the sun wouldn't even have been able to catch me!  
I slowed down, knowing that I was at least a 6th of a mile away from  
him, and began to walk. I didn't particularly know where I was headed  
to, but I just had this voice inside that told me to keep going,  
you're doing the right thing, Alexander!  
I was getting tired. My eyes felt too heavy to sit in my eyelids, and  
they were getting dryer by the minute. I HAD to get rest soon. But  
where? There wasn't a relative or friend near me! Nor a hotel, but I  
didn't have any money, so that was fine. I looked around, and spotted  
a light on in a house somewhat...30 feet away from me, I guess, and I  
thought that maybe I could ask them if they had a phone- or that I'm  
lost. No. I couldn't say that. What if they were bad people? I  
wouldn't' risk it.  
I ran down the street-down the hill slanted street-towards the lighted  
house.  
"Hi, I'm Alex. My friend's power ran out of his house, and I need to  
call my parents so they can pick me up. May I use the phone for a  
minute?" I said to myself as I ran.  
No. BAAAAD! Why would they ever let me in to use there phone if they  
didn't even know me? Exactly. They wouldn't.  
As soon as I got to the door and knocked, I came up with this,  
"Hi...Um...I'm Alex. I am staying at my friends house, which is down the  
street, and our power is dead. I need to call my parents so they can  
pick me up, because my friend is getting really sick."  
The person who answered the door was a woman, about 33 or 34, with  
blond curly hair and blue eyes. She had heard my fake story, and had  
said, "Well...Okay. Um, come inside and use the phone, watch out for the  
dog," she began, as a cocker spaniel dog came bounding into the room,  
panting. I hesitantly stepped into the house, stepping over the  
excited dog and into the kitchen.  
The woman watched as I dialed Megan's mom, my Aunt's number and  
waited. What I heard was, "Hi, you've reached the Daniels family. We  
can't come to the phone right now, because we don't like you, so leave  
a message after the beep!"  
It was the answering machine. I hung up the phone and looked at the  
woman. Just then, a little girl about my age came sliding into the  
room. She had long, blond hair, blue eyes, sparkly lip gloss, and pink  
cargo flares on.  
It was Hillary. THIS was HER house! "Alex! What are you doing here?"  
she asked, leaning against the refrigerator. "Power went out," I  
blurted, trying not to make much of it. "Well, don't come near me,"  
Hillary grunted.  
"You guys know each other?" Hillary's mother asked, looking at us  
both. "Yah, I guess. We go to school together," I said. "He's in my  
class," Hillary stated.  
"Well, Alex, have a good night!" Hillary's mom said, throwing her  
hands in the air. I looked at Hillary. She looked upset. And, she  
seemed to follow me as I left. "Where are you going?" she scowled.  
"To 'save the world', okay?" I mumbled.  
"Sure," Hillary said, crossing her arms. "No, where are you really  
going. I know for fact that you don't live down the street."  
"Okay, okay. I'm going out to save my cousins from being killed. They  
are stuck trying to find the lock because my cousin has the key to the  
lock. It leads to a secret world or universe-or something. Full of  
gold to the sky. My cousins have the key, and I am the only one who  
knows where the lock is," I said, running out of air.  
"Where?" Hillary asks.  
"In my backyard," I had just realized it. They had the key, I have the  
lock! The bad guys were on a completely different trail! Aaron must  
have found the key when he slept over at my house last year! We were  
playing in the backyard and Aaron was digging...But I never got to see  
what he was digging. He brought it home, and Alexander Corell used the  
Tracker to trace himself to Megan's house, and when he opened the  
door, he found Aaron standing there with the key. Thinking that Aaron  
was the key to succession, he took him so that Aaron could tell him  
where the lock was, but he doesn't know! And Alexander Corell is  
trying to kill me because he knows I'm on his back! Now, all I needed  
to do was bring Aaron and Megan back to their house without Alexander  
Corell following us. Then, we could hide the key and never find it  
again. But if we get caught, he'll ask us where the lock is, and drag  
us behind as he unlocks the other world.  
"Yes," I said, "it's in my backyard. But first, I'll have to save my  
cousins,"  
I could tell she thought I was nuts, standing outside in the driveway  
telling of some nonsense adventure. "I'll believe it when I see it.  
I'm coming with," Hillary said, using that slang for "I'm coming with  
you," when you just cut off the "you" part and leave it at, "I'm  
coming with." I started down the street and she lagged behind,  
skipping, if you may. I stared back at her with a look that said to  
'hurry up'. Though, I didn't ask her to 'come with' in the first  
place. The wet street shimmered in the moonlight and the soaking trees  
glowed excitedly.  
This was going to be practically impossible unless I had some  
convenient form of travel to carry me to the Texas desert.  
  
THE RUNAWAY ALEX AND HILL  
  
Hillary snuck out of the house to come with me on my journey. She  
brought a backpack full of stuff. When she arrived next to me, she  
seemed mad. "Let's go," she said, impatiently. We ran down the street  
some more, passing 4 stop signs. I looked at my watch, which said  
11:27. Hillary and I decided to camp out on the side of the road under  
two, really tall pine trees. We both fell asleep at 11:48. When I woke  
up the next morning, Hillary was over near the road, a few feet away  
from the street. I woke her up, and she got really mad.  
"So, where now?" she asked, putting the backpack over her shoulders. I  
trusted my instincts on this one. "That way," I pointed.  
So, we set off down the street, going in this particular direction,  
and after time, got very tired. We REALLY needed some other, faster  
way of travel. So, when we saw a sign up ahead that said, "Joe's  
Automobiles" we ran towards it to find that it was a tiny little  
beaten up building with tons of old cars and trucks.  
The tiny building's side window had been boarded up and the roof was  
covered with a black tarp, probably because all the shingles might  
have been missing. And all of the trucks and cars were old and rusty  
and sitting on the dirt beside the road. The building must have been  
built over what might have been a farm. Two red balloons were tied to  
the dirty old sign to attract people's attention.  
Hillary and I ran to the building and opened the door.  
The inside of the tiny building was one room, with crummy old junk  
floor tiles that were smudged and falling apart. There was a tiny desk  
at the back of the room, which was made out of wood, and worn out on  
the edges. Scattered all around the room, there were papers tacked  
into the big cork walls. And old calendars. There was a ceiling fan,  
that was moving really slowly and the light bulb on it was broken. An  
old, old fan sat on the desk at the back of the room, and behind the  
desk, sat a big fat man with a beard and a cowboy hat pulled over his  
face.  
"Er, sir?" I called.  
"Heh? Wha?" the man mumbled, gazing up at us and yawning.  
"Uh yeah. Sir, we were wondering if we could um..." I thought for a  
moment. I couldn't seem to put, "Can we use one of those cars?" into  
more realistic words.  
"Um...We were wondering if we could pick up our dad's car?" I said,  
thinking fast.  
"Eh? Ya wanna' pick up the ca?" the man yapped, in an accent I  
couldn't figure out what it was. "Uh, yeah. We do. Do you have it?"  
Hillary said, tapping on the desk. "Wats yer name be?" the man,  
obviously very ignorant, spoke.  
"Corlell? Is it on the list?" I asked. The man stared at the list,  
stroking his beard.  
"Nope. It aint on the list here," the man sighed, crossing his arms.  
He was probably reading the Ds or Zs or Bs or Es or Gs or Ts or Ps  
because he seemed like an idiot.  
Hillary stepped back a step.  
"Okay. Can we look at the cars and maybe we can tell our dad to come  
and check them out?" Hillary asked.  
"Sure. Go on ahead," the man said, pointing to the door, "but if you  
wreck the cars, you have to be buyin' dem, 'kay?"  
We ran out the front door and looked at all the cars. They were  
tattered up and stained, but they were also very cheap. $400, $500,  
$650 for a pickup truck that had 4 wheel drive and comfy seats. The  
$400 one was a 1978 Ford or something. It had a busted tape player and  
ripped up seats. There was also a big rust mark on the hood of the  
car. It ran, though.  
And that's when I saw it. I saw a junk car sitting next to the tiny  
building with the one room. A junk car with 3 missing tire caps,  
broken windows, missing headlights and no stereo at all. It didn't  
even have a door on one side, and on the front, it was smashed it. The  
mirrors were bent, cracked, and one was even gone. It was covered in  
scratches and rust marks on various places. The hood was also dented  
inwards. That's why the car was worth $255.75. It still ran though.  
"That's it!" I yelled. "That crappy one ever there!"  
"What?" Hillary asked, looking at a really old van.  
"That junk car beside the little place over there! Let's use it! It's  
not good at all, so it's okay if we just take it for a ride, right?"  
"I guess so."  
"No, Hillary. We're taking it and riding to Texas, or you go back  
home," I said.  
"No. I've come too far. Uh...Fine let's take the car," Hillary shrugged.  
"On the other hand, I have no clue how to drive," I gasped.  
"True."  
"But, do YOU know how to drive?" I asked, leaning in.  
"I've never tried. Even if I did try, I'm eight so I'd probably be a  
horrible driver," Hillary sighed, thinking if one of us knew how to  
drive, we could get there indeed.  
"Well, best be heading on down on our journey. Do you have money?" I  
asked, starting down the street as it became a hill.  
"Yes I do. I packed my wallet in this backpack. $50.00 in there, and a  
few pennies," Hillary sang, staring into her backpack.  
We started running down the street. Down the hill of a road as it  
became lunch time. I used my watch, which was working fine now.  
It took a long time for us to reach decent civilization, a town, and  
try to find a taxi. A lime green taxi. The man in the front seat was  
all, "TAXI!" really loud. We got in, and told him to take us as far  
away as he could. He took us far, indeed.  
We were dropped off at a bus stop-somewhere-that was in a really scary  
part of-whatever town this was. Hillary was so nervous, she started  
walking back and forth. "What have I done?" she said to herself, "My  
mother is going to be furious. Oh, she's probably so worried now,  
sitting in our house wondering where I've been all day."  
"My aunt probably too," I said. I could imagine her going crazy  
looking for me.  
Hillary stopped short in her path. I saw fear in her eyes. "W-where  
are we?" she cried, staring around her. I looked around too.  
"I-I don't know. M-maybe we're s-somewhere in Texas?" I said, my teeth  
chittering.  
"No w-way Al-lex. T-texas is f-f-far away from w-where we were. We're  
p-prob-b-bly still in th-the same s-state," Hillary said, almost  
frozen.  
I could see my breath, that meant it was cold out. The night sky was  
black as velvet, my teeth were chattering, and cold gushes of wind  
blew into my face. Hillary paced back and forth as I lay on the bench  
at the bus stop, curled up. I felt very cold. This was odd, because it  
wasn't usually cold where I live, and it was summer. I just didn't  
care, because I was too busy thinking about where to go next. "Aha!" I  
exclaimed, sitting up straight in the bench. "Let's find a phone booth  
and call help!"  
"Good idea," Hillary says without shivering.  
So we head down the long, black road ahead of us, which seems to be  
miles away, we see a phone booth in the distance. We run for it, and  
almost make it there, when suddenly I hear Hillary screaming, and I  
instantly turn my head and look at this man coming out from the  
bushes. Hillary and I are freaked out, and we're shaking, but not  
moving, if you know what I mean. The man steps out onto the street,  
and points a finger at us.  
"Why are you kids out so late?" the man grunts. He's like 80 or  
something, and he's got white hair and a cranky old voice that always  
seems the same tone.  
He stood there for a moment, raising his finger to us. "Sir," I began,  
"we are lost. Where are we?"  
"You're in Star Scape California. Now why are we out and about  
tonight?" the old man grunted in that voice of his.  
"Well, sir," I say, but before I know it, he's cutting in, "You," and  
he's pointing at Hillary.  
She looked surprised, and she mouthed, "me?" and the old man nodded.  
"We were trying to sa-," she stopped when she saw my expression. I was  
looking at her, and mouthing, "no, no, no," and shaking my head. She  
looked at the old man and said, "...Save our dog. He's gone. We have  
been chasing him all day, you seen him?"  
"No. No I haven't. There's a phone booth down at the corner over there-  
," the old man said, coughing in between his words. Then, he fell to  
the ground. Was he dead? We didn't know. But if the cops found us,  
they'd suspect us for murder. We had to get out of there quick!  
We ran down the street and into the phone booth, where we entered a  
quarter and dialed the cops.  
"Hello?" I said into the phone. Hillary shivered and paced back and  
forth. A policeman answered.  
"Hello," he said.  
"Um, we've just witnessed a man dying of a heart attack. We are right  
near the 7 Eleven, on the street with the phone booth. We're in Star  
Scape," I explained.  
I heard silence, then his voice kicked in, "We're on our way."  
We waited. Then ran away.  
  
"FOUND THE BASE"  
  
He never did come, I guess, or I'm just judging by my perspective,  
since I ran away from the area and all. We kept on running, past the  
seven eleven, past 3 buildings, past some houses, and past a school  
building. I wondered if we were still in Star Scape, since we had been  
running for a long time. I couldn't tell. We sort of got cold out  
there, in our T-shirts and shorts, and began to shiver quite rapidly.  
I felt a dizzy feeling in my head, and became lightheaded, falling to  
the ground, along with Hillary. I stared into the sky, and noticed a  
large lightning bolt light up in the sky. Hillary and I immediately  
started running through the cornfield, though we didn't know where we  
were going.  
I think I was thinking about a shortcut out of there, and I guess I  
guessed it was through the cornfield, I guess I think I thought that.  
But, it was hilarious, because we just kept running!  
Rain poured on our heads as we ran. Then, I stopped running, looked  
down into what looked like a huge cliff. I could see the other side,  
long far away, and we were stuck on the ledge of that cliff for about  
30 minutes because we didn't know how to get across. I could see Mini-  
vans driving underneath us 80 something feet below on a small curvy  
road at the base of the mountain we were on.  
"Yeesh!" I screamed, losing my balance as I stared out towards the  
other side of the cliff. I tried to balance myself, but went tripping  
forwards into the drop of the mountain. I was falling, but not like  
all of the other times. This time, it felt real, and I was scared  
stiff! All the other times, I had just fell without making anything  
out of it, not noticing my surroundings. I thought I was about to  
knock on death's door and be kindly greeted in, when my shirt got  
caught on a really sharp rock. The rock scraped my back a little. I  
hung there whispering, "Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow" and staring blankly at the  
ledge on the other side of me, which was now towering over me.  
"Alex!" Hillary cried.  
"I'm okay, just a little hurt, that's all," I said, lying.  
"How are you going to get up here?" Hillary shot back at me.  
"I'm not, no, I'm not going to. I'm going to stay hanging here until a  
search and rescue team finds my helpless rotten corpse here and pulls  
me in to study my organs !" I cried, laughing, which really wasn't  
appropriate for the moment.  
"Uh uh. You gotta' get up here! What about life, Alex?"  
"What about it?" I asked, looking up at her looking down at me.  
"Well, don't you want to finish it?"  
"Why bother? Grow up, get married, have kids, get a job, get sick,  
die. Hooray! Just a waste of time. Besides, I'll probably have to live  
my life feeling sorry for myself that I didn't do what I promised  
Megan I'd do. Save her. Get the golden key. Why would I want to live  
life when my life I live isn't a good one? Tell me that?"  
Truthfully, I was just blabbing out some words, I really didn't know  
what I was talking about, and by the look on Hillary's face, she  
didn't either.  
"What the heck are you talking about?" Hillary asked.  
"Life...Can you help me?"  
"No Alex. I can't. You are too far down to reach."  
"Then I'm going to have to try to reach the ledge across from here!" I  
screamed, reaching out for the other cliff. I missed.  
"That's too dangerous."  
"Right now, I'm willing to take my chances."  
"Which you don't have."  
"Huh?"  
"Alex, you don't have a chance. It's frankly impossible!"  
"How do you know?"  
"I just do. You don't have enough upper body strength to pull yourself  
up onto that ledge-and if you did by a mere accident-how would I get  
across?"  
"Hillary, I'll help you across."  
"No, Alex. It's a bad idea."  
"You got a better one? Go ahead! What's YOUR idea?"  
Hillary paused and hit her forehead.  
"I don't have one," she sighed.  
"Then here I go!" I yelled, jumping up and forwards to grab the ledge.  
"AHA!" I yelled as I gripped onto the ledge. I had half-way made it!  
"Now climb up."  
I paused. Hillary was right. I couldn't pull myself up! I struggled to  
fling my leg up. Missed.  
"What are you going to do now?" Hillary shouted.  
I tried pulling again. Then, my foot landed on a rock sticking out of  
the cliff I was hanging off. I pushed up, using the rock.  
"I made it!" I yelled, standing up on the other side of the mountain.  
The big gap in between me and Hillary was like 8 feet long, and it  
looked impossible to help her across.  
She stood there with her arms crossed. "I'm still here!" she reminded.  
I stood on the edge of the ledge and reached my arm out. She was  
supposed to grab it. She didn't know that, so she jumped forward,  
across the gap, but missed the ledge. Instead, she hit the side of the  
mountain I was on and went falling down, hitting the side. But she  
grabbed a rock. And that rock saved her life, because she found  
another one above it, and started climbing up to the ledge where I was  
standing.  
"That was a close one," she sighed, breathing hard. "Let's get out of  
here."  
We started walking farther on the other side of the mountain, away  
from the gap, and tumbled down a hill of flowers. The flowers pricked  
my arms as I landed in them. I wanted to scream, but I couldn't.  
Something broke our fall. The moving base! They weren't in Texas  
anymore! That meant they knew where the lock was, and that's why they  
were headed back. We got up and looked at the monstrous moving base in  
front of us. I pulled out some of the needles from the flowers out of  
my arms. "How do we get this open?" I asked myself. I constantly  
looked up at it.  
"Aha!" Hillary shouted, pointing to an almost invisible door. We ran  
for it, and stopped when it opened up for us. I took a step into the  
huge room filled with controls and a balcony on top. Straight above  
our heads, there were cages hanging from the ceiling. One cage had  
Megan in it! I searched the area, but no guards were anywhere to be  
seen. Megan saw me, and started freaking out.  
In a second, I sprung to life, grasping Hillary's hand and dragging  
her up the ragged metal stairs, closer to Megan's cage. Standing on  
one side of the balcony, I climbed over the railing and stood as if I  
were about to drop.  
"What are you doing?" Megan yelled.  
"Saving you guys," I replied, reaching out and grasping tightly at the  
cage. I swung in the air, hanging from the cage, and then I tried to  
climb up to open the door for Megan. It swung open! I immediately  
climbed inside and turned back towards Hillary.  
"Stay there!" I called to Hillary, then backing up, turned to Megan  
and Aaron, who were sitting there blankly as the cage violently shook.  
Then, I heard a sound. A SNAP! I peered up at the rope holding up the  
cage and it was breaking! And I mean BREAKING! SNAP! SNAP! SNAP!  
The cage began to fall down, down below, and we all screamed in  
horror, seeing that death was just a few feet away....CRASH!!!!  
We lay there sprawled out and spread across the ground, pieces of the  
cage scattered on and below us. Pain shot up my back and all the blood  
rushed to my head, which made me very dizzy. I rolled over onto my  
back, and something that tasted like metal crept into my mouth... Blood!  
It was coming from my nose, which was throbbing with pain. I heard  
Megan and Aaron moan, and then shouts of men coming from down the  
hallway and cluttering footsteps. That made me jump up. And obviously,  
it also made Megan and Aaron jump up too, even though they were in  
pain.  
"Hide!" I whispered, waving my hands around the HUGE room we were in.  
Hillary came running down to us, shocked.  
"Are you okay?" she said, loud enough that I had to cover her mouth  
with my hand, which was all scraped up.  
"No," moaned Megan, "I thing my arm is broken!"  
"I am okay, just my head and my back hurt," Aaron said, seeming  
perfectly fine.  
"I'm just really aching and my nose is bleeding a lot," I said. Then  
suddenly, I yelled, "Hide!" in a loud whisper.  
We began to limp away, but then a man called, "Hey!" really loudly,  
and a whole group of other scary tall men came sliding into the room  
screaming in anger. But, I only recognized one man, Alexander Corell,  
who yelled, "Alex, so nice to see you," and then, to his men, "Lock  
them up." They grabbed us by our arms and dragged us across the ground  
into a jail cell, but unlike these, they were sealed to the ground,  
and were made of steel instead of copper.  
There we sat, in agony. My body was soar, and Aaron was completely  
fine. He was so lucky. Anyway, I sat there pressing my back against  
the back of the cell. I knew where we were headed. My backyard. And  
they were going to wreck the town, crushing buildings, just so they  
could make it to the lock in my backyard. And soon, they'd find that  
that separate universe below my yard isn't quite what they thought it  
would be. Not at all. I just sat there wondering how long I could  
survive in here. With no food.  
It had taken me and Hillary 2 days to make it past Starscape, so I was  
guessing it would take about a day to go back to where I lived. And it  
did.  
Time passed, and I think we bumped into something really hard, could  
it be a house? MY HOUSE?  
"Okay, everyone out. You guys have to show us how to work this thing,"  
said Alexander Corell, pointing a rifle to my head. We were now  
standing in the room with the cells, and he was walking us out the  
door of the moving base, which was now stopped, and into my backyard.  
His guards also had guns pointed to us. They were surrounding us.  
Alexander Corell made me kneel down on the ground and open the lock.  
"Where's the key?" He asked, standing over me.  
"The little one has it," one Arabian man growled, pushing Aaron in the  
back towards Alexander.  
"Hand it over," Alexander shouted, holding his hand out angrily.  
Aaron shook nervously, and pulled out the diamond thing and handed it  
to him.  
"Now Alex, open the lock. And make it quick!" Alexander yelled in my  
ear, making it throb with pain. I reached over and grabbed the key,  
and as soon as my hand touched it, Alexander held the rifle to my  
head.  
  
THE GATE TO HECK....OR WORSE!  
  
I kept looking around for anyone who could call the police. I would  
take anyone. Anyone who noticed the giant silver square base which was  
sticking out from behind my house so visibly. Please someone notice!  
I held the key up to the lock, and a bright light shot in my face with  
great power.  
It blinded me, knocking me back onto the ground. I heard the henchmen  
scream in amazement at the sight of the world on the other side, which  
was brightly lit. I stood up, staring down into the opened door to the  
other world, and grabbing Hillary's hand as the henchmen lead us down,  
pointing the guns to our head still.  
We stepped down the steps slowly, holding our hands up, and squinted  
our eyes at the sight of the sandy, red skied deserted world we were  
entering. I looked up, not to see a ceiling, which above that would be  
the ground in which some henchmen were still standing, but a red,  
fiery sky with a square opening in it. There were stairs coming out of  
that square in the sky, and Alexander Corell was walking down them. I  
was amazed at the redness of this desert world, the sand so dry, the  
sky so red-why was the sky so red?  
"Alex, boy, you only have the access to the Gold Mines," Alexander  
Corell said, pushing me forward. Hillary and I stumbled into a wall,  
and the henchmen ran over and shackled us up.  
"Get us off of here!" Hillary yelled. She was tugging at the shackles  
trying to free us, but they were too hard.  
"Now, I have access," Alexander Corell said mockingly, holding out a  
shiny card and waving it around. I was furious. "To the Gold Mines,  
men!"  
"Where did you get that?" I asked, tugging at the shackles.  
"From your jacket, you dimwitted idiot, when I shackled you up I took  
it from your jacket," Alexander scowled. Then, he and the henchmen  
walked over to the door to the Gold Mines.  
The sky was blood red, the sand was red, and the brick wall that  
Hillary and I were shackled to was red. We were now all alone, stuck  
to a wall, staring at the dark red world around us. I could still see  
the door in the sky with the stairs coming down from it, and it made  
me angry.  
"How are we going to get out of here?" Hillary asked. I thought for a  
moment and realized that the wall wasn't stuck in the ground. I guess  
the henchmen are pretty stupid.  
"I'll count to 3, and we both will lift this wall up and walk into the  
mines!" I said, staring into the red sky. Then, I counted to 3 and we  
both lifted the wall up. It broke in half! We were now walking with  
two, less-heavier walls on our backs. I went hurdling towards the  
Mines door and pushed it open, falling down a staircase and breaking  
the brick wall off my back. Except all of the henchmen saw me falling,  
so they gathered around me. I noticed that we were not in a gold mine,  
we were outside, on a ledge leading to red mist below. Hillary came  
rushing in through the door I broke through and stared as the henchmen  
picked me up and brought me over to the cliff edge. "We now have a  
sacrifice to the gods below, Sir," one of them said to Alexander  
Corell, who was standing looking off the cliff.  
"Good," he snarled, swerving around to see me. "The Little Corlell  
kid. I don't think his parents will be too happy when they see this,"  
he added, laughing menacingly.  
"But sir," a henchman interrupted.  
"Be quiet, and send the parents out as well. The gods think they might  
like the kid, and they might want more," Alexander Corell argued.  
"I have a name!" I yelled.  
"What?" the villain stared blankly at me.  
"I said, 'I have a name!'" I laughed.  
"ALEX!" two voices shouted from behind.  
I turned around to find two people being dragged up to the edge of the  
cliff. My parents! I hadn't seen them in weeks! Geez, this was a great  
moment, yet not.  
I got dropped onto the ground by the evil henchmen.  
"Mom! Dad!" I yelled, running to the area where they were.  
"Alex," Mom and Dad were crying, and gave me a big hug. I closed  
my eyes and wished that we were back in my house, on a warm, sunny  
morning. When I opened them up again, I was still in hell.  
"Now carry the Corlells to the pit," Alexander Corell explained,  
walking down the ledge which went across the pit of oozing lava.  
"Summon the gods first."  
Mom and dad let go of me, and I ran over to the group of  
henchmen, spying on their conversation.  
"I say we should forget what he said and drop the family in  
first," one of them said.  
"No, no! We have to summon the gods! They're the only ones who  
can open the gold mines up. If we summon them, and then give them the  
sacrifices, they'll open it up!" one of the more intelligent ones  
suggested.  
I ran back to my parents and told them what they were saying.  
Then I asked, "Where's my sister?" and they gave me these looks, that  
I can't explain, like they were going to say, "She has been dead for  
over 5 years!" but they didn't.  
Alexander Corell was now standing on the highest peak of the  
mountain, holding up the stone key thing. The red sky glimmered off  
the key, shining in my eyes like the rays of the sun.  
"Gods of the Underworld, I beg of thee to except my gift and get  
in return a reward. It would honor me greatly if you could open up the  
gold mines. We have found three sacrifices for you. Take their lives  
and open the mines in return! We will summon you to our presence!"  
Alexander Corell shouted to the gods of the fiery pits. They started  
humming this chant, and bowing down to the lava pit.  
I watched in horror as the lava slowly grew! It grew, and formed  
into three tiki figures with spears! I was staring wide-eyed, dizzy  
and confused by these giant tiki gods forming out of the red, globby,  
boiling lava. Alexander Corell stared in amazement at his creations,  
holding the key up high with pride.  
"YES!" he shouted, the henchmen still chanting, "Oh holy Gods,  
please except my sacrifices!" The henchmen came up behind me and my  
parents and grabbed us.  
"No!" my mom was crying. She tried to stop herself from getting  
any closer to the pit, but the henchmen just picked her up and kind of  
threw her towards the ledge of the pit.  
"Stop! You can't!" my dad was screeching. He kicked the henchman  
in the shin, and the henchmen pushed him. But this was a harder push  
than his mom had. He went screaming and falling off the cliff towards  
the lava. I burst out in tears.  
"NOOOOO!" I cried, forcing myself to the ground. "My dad! You  
jerks killed my dad!" I cried, crawling towards my mom, who was still  
on the ground.  
"Honey!" she was screaming, to me in sympathy and to dad in  
sorrow. She grabbed me and held me, gazing at the henchmen evilly.  
"You guys should rot in hell!" she yelled, letting go of me and  
walking over to them. She was still crying.  
"Sit down, lady!" a henchman yelled. Mom was very upset. He just  
looked at her with a snarl, and she grabbed him and hurled him threw  
the air. He landed next to me, and then slipped off the edge and into  
the fire below.  
"MOM!" I yelled, both surprised and concerned. She tried hitting  
another one, but they flung her towards me. BOOM! She hit me, and we  
fell off the edge, towards the fire pit and the evil Devil Gods. Mom  
grabbed onto the edge and I grabbed onto mom's foot with two hands.  
"Get them into the pit!" Alexander Corell yelled, pointing at  
his henchmen. I turned my head to look at him, and he stared at me and  
mouthed, "You will die."  
Then, out from the ledge popped a hand. A man's hand. And a  
warm, familiar voice said, "Hold on. I've got you."  
Dad struggled to bring us up onto the ledge again, but he  
finally did, before the henchmen could make it to us. We sat on the  
ledge, exhausted. "One of us has got to get that key. It holds all the  
power of this world. It can also terminate this place, but I don't  
know how to make it do that," Dad explained, whispering at a level  
that the henchmen couldn't hear.  
"I'll do it!" I yelled, running across the bridge across the  
fire pit.  
"Alex! No! Watch out!" Mom yelled, right in time as one of the  
giant, red, lava demons swung at the bridge and knocked a chunk off. I  
kept on running, and I made it across.  
"Alex! Honey! Be careful!" Mom and Dad yelled. And I watched in  
silence as the henchmen grabbed at them, but turned around quickly and  
walked up the hill. Alexander Corell was standing on the very top,  
holding the key out to the gods. Henchmen were trying to catch me, but  
since the bridge had been knocked down, they couldn't even get close.  
I ran up the pathway to the top of the bridge, stopping for  
breaths once and a while. I reached the top, and stood feet behind  
Alexander Corell, holding the stone key thing.  
"Hey you!" I yelled. He turned around right away, and then I ran  
at him, punching him in the stomach. He reacted as any adult being  
punched by a kid would. But then he hit me, and all the air got  
knocked out of me. I fell to the ground, doubling over, and moaning.  
Even when I was down, Alexander Corell kept kicking me in the stomach,  
each time hurting more than the last. I began to fade out, and then  
something inside me said, "Alex, you are a secret agent," and I jumped  
up, kicking him in the side, making him fall to the ground. Then I did  
a cartwheel, landing on his chest.  
The stone key thing dropped to the ledge, and I grabbed it,  
holding it up with triumph. I had defeated Alexander Corell!  
"DAD!" I yelled, "I got it!"  
"GREAT!" he and mom shouted, from way below, across the fire  
pit. How was I supposed to get across the fire pit? That didn't  
matter! I had to get down there! I had Hillary, mom, dad, and my  
cousins down there!  
I finally reached the ledge, where the bridge used to be going  
across. On the ledge on the other side of the fire pit, my mom and dad  
stood, being held back by henchmen.  
"Mom! Dad!" I yelled. "You have to catch me! I'm going to have  
to jump across!"  
"Alex! No! What if we can't catch you? You'll die!" Mom yelled,  
trying to wiggle free from the henchmen's grasps. I noticed their  
hands were held back, so they couldn't catch me if I jumped. I'd have  
to take a risk and jump, and hope that I could make it across. I ran,  
and jumped, reaching my arms out to grab the opposite ledge where my  
parents were. I screamed, and landed harshly on the dirt ledge,  
missing a passing boulder being thrown by the Lava Gods.  
"Alex!" dad cried, hugging me.  
"Dad! I'm fine! You've got to fight off the henchmen! I'll use  
the gold key to destroy the gods. Then we'll make a run for it!" I  
explained quickly, trying to point out everything as I went along.  
"Got ya', Alex," Dad nodded. He and Mom turned around and  
started fighting back the henchmen. With the key, I ran up to the  
ledge, near the gods.  
"Look over here!" I yelled, catching their attention quickly.  
They stared at me, with their red beady eyes glowing in the red sky.  
"It's going to be an apocalypse!" I yelled to Mom and Dad. I'm not  
sure if they could here that.  
The key glowed red, sending a beam to the tiki gods' eyes. They  
let out a loud, ferocious roar, flailing their arms around like  
lunatics. Then, in a chain reaction of events, they exploded into a  
giant fireball and several dust clouds. The sky turned even more red,  
with fire and shadowy faces of demons in the smoky clouds.  
"RUN!" I yelled, running away, out of the Mines entrance. Mom  
and Dad were still there! The fire was spreading across the land fast,  
and the heat was rising! Devils laughed from the sky above, which  
burned like the ground was burning. I watched Mom and Dad fight. They  
didn't seem to notice the explosion expanding across the land.  
"It's the apocalypse! Guys, run!" I yelled, running backwards,  
so I could see my parents. My foot hit something that made me trip and  
fall backwards. I quickly got up, and turned around running towards  
the stairs that came out of the sky. The stairs that lead to my  
backyard! I had to hurry!  
"Alex!" 3 voices called, at different times. It was Megan,  
Aaron, and Hillary! They were running too! But I couldn't see my  
parents! And the fire was spreading across the land, destroying it  
like a bonfire destroys an army of ants.  
"Honey!" Mom and Dad yelled. I couldn't look back. I had to  
reach the exit! It was so close, and every step I took I got even  
closer. I assumed everybody was behind me or beside me, and if we made  
it out, I would be glad. Hillary took a curve in front of me, and sped  
up to the stairway to the real world. We were so close! Megan went up  
ahead of me, and then Aaron. I looked back, jogging backwards with  
trouble, and I saw my parents running for there lives as a sand storm  
built up behind them. My mom grasped my dad's hand, and they kept on  
running, speeding past the fire and sand all around. I looked back,  
and I had run off course from the stairway. I was down a hill, and the  
stairway was far left. I turned to it then back to my parents, who  
made it up the stair way. A devil laughed and emerged from the hot  
sand, and I scampered across, up the hill towards the stairway.  
"Alex! Come on! Hurry!" Dad yelled, looking down the stairs into  
the hell I was in. I started climbing up the stairs, but something  
grabbed my leg!  
"No! Let go of him!" Mom yelled, hitting whatever had me with  
her hand.  
"Aaah!" I yelled, kicking the thing's arm with my other foot. It  
grabbed that foot, and I went falling back into the hot sand. "Mom!  
He's got me!" I yelled, clawing at the sand. My mom came out of the  
door in the sky and down the stairs in a hurry. She was crying and  
screaming bloody murder.  
"Dad!" I yelled. He was coming down the stairs after he told the  
girls and Aaron to stay where they were. He and mom grabbed my arms.  
The thing pulled me deeper! My whole bottom half was under the ground.  
I felt emptiness under my feet. My parents pulled me out of the ground  
and I didn't look back. I ran straight upstairs, into the real world,  
light and blue. The door was still open, revealing a horrible red  
light and a glow of yellow. Mom and dad didn't come out! I thought I  
was going to stay like this forever.  
"Megan! My Mom and Dad are gone!" I cried. Megan grabbed me by  
the shoulders and shook me.  
"Alex, there's still a chance! You have to believe!" Megan  
shouted, shaking me. I stopped crying and looked at Megan.  
"Who will take care of me?" I asked, looking at the ground.  
Megan looked behind me at the doorway to hell. A smile came apon her  
face, and 4 arms grabbed me and swooped me up from behind.  
"Aah!" I yelled. The arms separated into two sets of two arms,  
and I looked up to see my mother's face looking down on me. "Mom! Dad!  
You're alive!!! Oh my god!" I yelled, hugging my Mom. She put me on  
the ground and I went to see Dad. "Dad! Dad! I thought you were dead!  
How'd you get out?" I asked, hugging my Dad.  
"We kicked it in the face. It fell over into the sand, and we  
ran up! And now we're all okay, we're a family again! Oh guys!" my Dad  
cried. But they were happy tears. My Mom came over and twirled me  
around. All the happiness stopped for a moment. Something wasn't  
right.  
"Guys, where's my sister?" I asked, becoming very worried. They  
didn't have time to answer, because then a roar came from the front of  
the house, and a Station Wagon came crashing through the fence. My  
sister was at the steering wheel! She pulled over and yelled out the  
window, "Hurry, guys, get in the car!" she yelled, staring at us. My  
Mom got in first. Then Aaron, Megan, and I got in the back of the  
Station Wagon.  
"Dad, are you going to stay here?" I asked. He looked around to  
the front of the house.  
"Yes, Alex. But I'm going to use my car. I'll take this young  
lady home. She needs to get rest after all of this trauma," Dad said,  
knowing what Hillary's parents would say to him if they found out what  
happened to her. I waved a last goodbye to the girl. She smiled a  
little. She was too creeped out to show emotions. As the car pulled  
away, I realized something.  
"Dad!" I yelled, "go inside that huge base over there and let  
the prisoners out!" Dad just stared at me.  
"Okay!" He yelled. He ran inside the huge base as the car backed  
out into the front yard and out into the street. The sky was gray now,  
with a red horizon. Mom sped down the street, ignoring all stop signs.  
We were in a hurry. The world was going to end soon. The gates to hell  
had been opened, and some escaped. Suddenly, my mom's hand shot up in  
surprise. The car skidded to a stop.  
  
THE EXPLOSIVE CONCLUSION  
  
"Look out there! Oh my god!" My Mom cried. Her trembling finger  
pointed out the window. I stared at what she was pointing at. 17  
bloody creatures where slowly traveling down the street in front of  
the sun set. I opened my mouth to scream, but nothing came out.  
"Alex, let's go!" Megan cried, opening the door and pulling me  
out after her.  
"No! Absolutely no! Get back here! Get away from them!" my Mom  
was yelling.  
I looked back at Aaron. "Come on, Aaron," I said, waving. He  
hopped out of the car and we ran down the wet paved road towards the  
hideous hell creatures.  
"We split up. Alex, do you have any of our gadgets?" Megan  
asked, looking at me as if I were the keeper of all objects. I reached  
into my pocket.  
"I have this thing," I said, handing her the little multi-tasked  
gadget. She took it, and pushed a switch. A small piercing laser  
beamed out of the gadget, blowing up some of the demons.  
Me and Aaron said in unison, "Awesome!" and both ran for it. I  
went running towards the wall. Instead of hitting it, though, suction  
powers at the bottom of my shoes stuck me to the wall.  
"This would have helped very early on!" I yelled, walking up the  
wall. I got to the roof, and ran over to the skylight. It was made of  
glass. Glass thin enough that I could break through. I already had  
scars from my previous attempts, but I had no other choice. I went  
plummeting through the glass and landed on the floor. Pain shot  
through my arm I landed on, and I scrambled to my two pain filled  
legs. The little room was filled with old, dusty tools. I searched and  
searched, until my hand brushed against a light. I flipped it on, and  
the light shined down on this map of a nuclear power plant. I looked  
out the back window, and sure enough, there was a nuclear power plant.  
The map showed a button that was labeled, "Dump waste". I shrugged,  
and being the curious kid that I was, I started looking for that  
button in the room. There were many, but onlt one said, "Dump waste".  
I pushed it down hard, and in a series of events, the nuclear power  
plant exploded in the distance!  
I ran screaming off the top of the roof. Megan and Aaron were  
already back in the car, and Mom was crying, beeping the horn. I ran  
towards the car, and Megan opened up the door.  
"What did you do?" Mom yelled, driving away from the explosion.  
It was gaining non us! The mushroom of an explosion spread closer  
towards us, ripping off the back of the car!  
"SPEED UP!" Megan screamed, moving to the front of the car. Mom  
kept driving, but I noticed that we were missing one passenger. At the  
back of the car, Aaron was grabbing onto the seat, with her legs  
flinging out in back of the car. The whole back of the car was  
missing, and the explosion was almost ripping at her legs.  
"Grab on to my hand!" I yelled, reaching my hand out of the  
missing back of the car. He let go, and went flying out of the car  
entirely, but I held on to her hand. My mom sped the car down the  
street, faster than the explosion could spread. Aaron almost touched  
the spreading explosion with her black sneakers, but I forced her back  
into the car and into the front area of the car.  
"Mom! Mom! It's gaining up on the car!" I yelled, staring out  
the back of the car that was missing. The fire of the nuclear  
explosion burned at the edge of the car, ripping pieces off and  
shortening the length of the car. We moved up closer to the front. I  
felt guilty for pushing that button, but now we knew that all of the  
criminals were dead, as well as the devils. But my thoughts ended as I  
saw a melting body of a creature fly towards the back of the car in  
the explosion. It missed, but went in front of the car and we ran it  
over. My mom was screaming like she was being murdered, and I was  
feeling nauseous because of the heat and the incredible speed we were  
going at. I noticed that the empty cars and houses were getting burned  
through, and I felt sorrow for whoever lived there.  
"Alex!" Megan yelled, "Your dad!" and I realized her point. Dad  
was dead! And Hillary! And Steven!  
"Nooooooooooooo!" I yelled, clutching my head and falling to the  
floor of the car.  
"My mom and dad! In that car! There's your dad!" Megan screamed  
happily, pointing to the speeding car aside ours. The explosion was  
nipping at the back of their car, and they were giving us scared  
looks, but I could see love behind them. With a quick wave, they went  
swerving ahead of us, and the explosion kept burning closer to us.  
Soon, we were all bunched up screaming in the front of the car,  
dragging the back end of the car along, but soon, the fire hit the gas  
tank!  
The car screeched off to the side, and then the back of the car  
burst into flames, and the back of the car exploded entirely, leaving  
the two front seats and the rusted front of the car. My mom kept  
riding on, dragging the wheel-less car across the ground, away from  
the fire. Aaron peeked over the front seat out into the outer world,  
revealed to him by the missing side panels and entire back of the car.  
Sparks were shooting from the ground as the broken car kept sliding  
across the street. But then, the explosion sort of died down, started  
fading away, leaving a billowing cloud of dust to blow our car out of  
the way. We held on tight as the car flipped over and skid across the  
ground 40 feet before stopping. I fell out of the front door onto the  
burning hot ground, scraped and bleeding. Everyone in the car was  
badly injured. Aaron was lying sprawled on the upside-down ceiling of  
the car. My mom was knocked out, so she looked dead. She was knocked  
out from all the trauma and jostling of the car. The crashed station  
wagon sat steaming as I stood on the street in shock. My mouth hung  
open, I dragged my feet across the road to the other torn up car where  
my dad lay on the ground with his legs still caught in the seat.  
2 minutes later, the fire department and emergency vehicles  
pulled up to the scene. The world looked like the hell world now,  
because the sky was red as fire, and everything was gone. There were  
fire trucks and ambulances everywhere. In the far distance, they were  
hosing off the houses that weren't there.  
"Young man?" a fireman shouted at me, "Are you okay? We got to  
rush you to the hospital!" And then he noticed everyone else. "Oh  
lord!" he cried, staring at my injured family members and friends,  
"We've got to get the entire military over here! It's as if the world  
has ended again! Look! There are more down there!" he pointed in front  
of us. Every car on the street was toppled and burning. The doctors  
and nurses were all over the place, running, policemen and firemen,  
and I just stood there, all alone and in the middle of an empty world.  
It was so empty, I could see clear across the entire city. The  
firemen, policemen, and emergency room people were the only to  
survive. Or that's what I thought!  
Later that day I found myself at the hospital in the waiting  
room. I was surprised to see that there was still a hospital after the  
explosion. They called me into the room, and I stood in a panic in  
front of my dad, sister, and mom. They were in hospital beds. They had  
I.V. tubes. Other than that, thank god, they were okay aside from a  
couple of scars and scrapes.  
"Mom, dad, sis, are you okay?" I asked, rushing up to the  
hospital beds and resting my head on them gently.  
"I'm okay," said mom, who had bandages over her head. I began to  
cry looking at them in this state. Dad had scrapes everywhere, and my  
sister was just covered with scars!  
"Why didn't anything happen to me? Why?" I asked in mid-tears.  
My parents looked at each other and smiled.  
"Something did. You saved the world, hun," Dad said. I froze.  
Huh? Could he be telling the truth?  
"But dad, the whole city is gone!" I cried, about to gesture out  
the window. I turned my head and my eyes stuck out. The entire town we  
were in was perfectly fine, and the sky was blue.  
"Honey, that was just our neighborhood. If you hadn't done  
anything, the whole world could have gone down. You did it. You saved  
the world. That man had the key. He had control over the world. He was  
going to send hell's fiery depths onto our land and that would have  
destroyed everything. You made a few mistakes, but you also did  
something in return. Look out onto the parking lot. Those are living  
people. You helped make those people live. That explosion wiped out  
armies of demons that would have destroyed earth," dad explained.  
"But that explosion killed everyone!" I yelled, jumping back.  
"Nobody was there to kill, Alex. They were all gone. Every one  
of them."  
"What about their cars and houses?"  
"They have insurance that will cover it."  
"What about the plant life and streets and everything?"  
"They're starting the town over again. It's a long process, but  
it will happen. When you're my age, the town will be back to normal."  
I stared out the window at the beautiful sky. "Where's Megan and  
her family? Where's Hillary?"  
"In other rooms of the hospital. Hillary's family nearly died.  
But they missed the flames by this much," dad said, pinching his  
fingers to show me how much.  
"So why isn't anyone mad at me for blowing up the power plant?"  
I asked.  
"Because you didn't do it. The demons did."  
"Then why are you saying that I saved the world?"  
"Because you went on that whole journey just to rescue your  
family, and you burned that key to destroying the earth. That was the  
bravest thing anyone could ever do," mom said, patting me on the back.  
"When will you guys be out of here?" I asked.  
"In three to four weeks. We are injured pretty badly. Your  
mother's got a few scars on her head," dad said. I gasped. Then I  
remembered the burning car and I saw why she had all those scars.  
"Mommy!" I said, walking up to her, "Don't ever leave me. I  
can't live without you guys. Take my journey as a token of my love for  
you."  
"We will," mom and dad said.  
"I love you, Alex. I may have bugged you before, but now I can't  
move so you won't have to worry about that. I love you. You're my  
brother, and I will always love you no matter what I say," my sister  
said so softly that I had to walk up to her. I stopped for a moment,  
bent over, and hugged her.  
"Where will I go?" I asked, walking back to the middle of the  
room.  
"You can stay with your aunt for a few weeks," dad said. I began  
to turn away and walk out the door, but then dad said, "I'll miss you.  
Don't get into any trouble, honey."  
I just couldn't stop crying as I exited the hospital. People  
were cheering me on, but I kept on thinking about everyone who got  
hurt in the explosion.  
That's my story, folks. The story of me, Alexander Corlell as an  
adventurer at age 8.  
  
THE END! 


End file.
